I Was Broken sequel
by Zosie
Summary: Rereading I Was Broken, it seems to have a natural ending halfway through the story so I'm splitting it and finishing it here. I realize now this part two will not be able to carry the reviews these chapters already have, but whatever.
1. Chapter 1

I Was Broken

Chapter 8

EPOV

Work, that had once been my refuge, was now just a major pain in the butt because it took me away from Bella. I worked on autopilot and Marcus thought it was hilarious when women came on to me and I failed to notice. It was just an occupational hazard. Women liked doctors and some fostered one sided feelings for some of us.

It would cost us our careers to respond, even if we noticed and wanted to; neither of which applied to me.

"Honestly, you really think she has some problem with her nipples? She just wanted an excuse to bare them and wave them in your face. You reacted as if you were examining her foot for fungus between the toes. I bet she gives up on you now and moves on to me," he said in delight.

"Were those nipples? I didn't notice," I replied, sipping my coffee. I needed it, to be honest, to keep me awake. Sleep had become something we only did when complete exhaustion took over and closed our bodies down to continue surviving.

Bella slept by day and even if I snuck home for lunch, it was spent in bed. Sometimes just holding her. Other times she'd greet me naked on the tantra chair and I would strip off my clothes and glance at the page she had the Kama Sutra opened at to see what was expected of me.

I was always open to new positions and fun times after our years apart. I guess there was a slight element of fear that things were too good. Bella had blossomed and everyone had noticed.

Her clothes had changed and the black colour scheme had disappeared. Now she wore happy colours and pretty dresses again, and looked after herself like she used to.

On my next day off, she had an appointment at Rose's salon for a hair and spa day, but rather than beg her to change the appointment, I encouraged her to go.

There was one thing I needed to do and I wanted to do it without her here.

It was my ghost to lay.

I stripped absolutely everything out of the former guest room and disposed of each item one way or the other. I wanted no sign of her short lived disastrous 'marriage' to James left in our house and so far I'd just kept that bedroom door shut. It was time to face my demons.

My wife had been in this room, in this bed, with that man.

That was not acceptable and I even ripped up the carpet and tossed it away.

Emmett and Jasper both helped and our aim was, by the time Bella returns, the room will be completely unrecognizable.

We worked our butts off.

Gone were the pale green walls and cream trims. It was now all snowy white, from floorboards to curtains, and even though it was tempting Fate, it was now furnished as our nursery.

I was determine to raise another child with her whether or not we created it ourselves.

Her period was almost due so we were counting down to the day when we would do the test together but for now, I needed a room that spoke of future dreams rather than past nightmares.

The baby furniture was all white, something Emmett said was crazy because babies were messy things, but I wanted white for what it stood for. Innocence, purity, and new life.

No doubt Bell and the other girls would add in accessories in pinks and blues, whatever, but this was the haven I wanted for our child.

Bella burst into tears when she saw it and the boys slipped away and left us to our moment.

"Edward, I love it completely and I adore that you have faith this will be needed but we don't know yet," she said worriedly and I sat her on my lap and rubbed circles on her back.

"We know one day there will be a baby living here, where he or she comes from is irrelevant. We can adopt, that worked out okay for Carlisle and Esme don't forget. Bella, wherever this child comes from, it will be our child. I hope we get to make it ourselves but if not, then we get to welcome it together. You know there are lots of little ones out there that need a home and parents. We will have our baby. We can put a deadline on when we start exploring alternate ways to find our child, if that makes you happy but for the next few years, we can just try and see what happens."

"Okay, no pressure then," she smiled through her tears.

"No pressure. But I think we have started him or her already, myself. I can feel it's presence right here," I said, holding my hand on my heart.

She took my other hand and placed it on her belly and snuggled into to me.

"I want this too, so much. I'm so glad we worked things out in time to be able to have another baby. I'm sure what we went through forced us to this point so maybe it was worth the journey. I can't believe Victoria didn't try and give you a child. That would have kept you tied to her forever."

"She did try," I replied. "I found a heap of Pill packets and the dummies were missing. She must have refilled her container each month with the sugar pills alone because she knew I would watch her take one each night. It's just pure luck she didn't conceive. I guess you are right and she wanted that tie between us, or maybe just an heir, but she was never going to be good mother material. She hated going near Rose and Emmett's boys and never held them or touched them at all.

If they were offered to her, she'd make an excuse and head to the bathroom, or go make the coffee or whatever. Anything rather than touch the 'sticky little damp things'. I think she lacked any maternal feelings at all."

"Well I for one am glad about that," she replied. "I want all your babies."

"And you shall have them," I replied, kissing her.

She got up and wandered through the room, examining everything and exclaiming about how much nicer baby gear was these days, and there was so much more equipment available.

"We could go buy some baby clothes. Just a few neutral things to show the universe we are ready and waiting," I suggested and so we spent two hours exclaiming over tiny little garments and tossing way too many of the smallest size into our cart.

They were all irresistible and of course we ended up with a stack of pink and another of blue as well as the sensible white and yellow neutrals.

Then Bella saw a crib set in pastels and had to buy that so we checked the blankets and strollers and bouncy chairs and ended up with basically everything any baby would ever need. I packed it all in the car and we spent the evening arranging everything in the nursery.

If she wasn't pregnant yet, it would still be okay because we could have more fun trying, but I really sensed a change in her body already.

Her nipples looked different; darker and more sensitive. Her nipples I noticed.

I would be very surprised if we got a negative test result.

Bella decided to put the tiny clothes away unwashed, then of course changed her mind and washed everything. We sorted and folded them all fresh from the dryer and she chose where each little frock or blue romper would go.

It was silly and premature but we needed the fun and hope.

That night in bed we started suggesting names and it was lucky we did because it seemed she and I had very different taste. She liked old traditional names while I thought something bright and modern was better.

Then she added the condition that we had to research the meaning of any names that ended up on our short list, so that ruled out about seventy per cent because their meanings were not special enough. Bella would have liked a name with the meaning 'rebirth' but we only found Phoenix or , ironically, Renee, and she didn't wish to name any baby after her mother.

I raised the issue of whether we would put any of Angela's three names into this baby's name should she be a girl, and Bella thought maybe that would be a nice idea.

Angela Nicole Marie Cullen.

She shied away from the third name, Marie, saying she now had a reason to not use it again because of 'him' and his first love then she debated whether that Marie even existed or whether she had been invented just for his use.

I already knew her second marriage was fake because Jay had of course informed me, but she must have decided the time was right to share that with me, so I listened and told her I was happy she was never truly a 'Hunt' and that she had always been a Cullen to me.

I wished my marriage to Victoria had been equally non existent but sadly that was not the case.

It would soon be finalized, over and done with.

The day it was, we would go out for a night on the town and celebrate, I promised.

"So, it's Kara or Karissa for a girl," I checked.

"Maybe Karissa but gets shortened to Kara? Karissa Angelina Cullen? What do you think?"

"Beautiful. Like her mother. I can't wait."

We slept and for once we didn't spend the night trying to ensure she was pregnant. We just wanted to cuddle together and hope Kara was already with us.

I couldn't help hoping for another girl, because we had both felt so excluded from all things girlie since the loss, and we wanted our membership to that club back.

But a boy would be just as welcome.

Bella had hoped for a boy the first time, so I knew whatever turned up would be perfect and exactly what we wanted.

X~x~X

BPOV

After Edward left for work, I sat in the nursery and played with all the little baby clothes and felt the deepest yearning for our new baby to begin. I dressed up a teddy bear and Baby's First Babydoll seeing I had no actual baby yet to try the clothes on.

My whole day was spent thinking about it and wondering if it had happened yet and when Rose arrived and slammed a Positive pregnancy test stick on our table, I really wanted to go do my own test.

"So, you are pregnant," I said, stating the obvious. "That's great news, Rose. Congratulations."

To my surprise, Rosalie burst into tears.

"What's wrong? I thought you wanted more kids."

"I do, just not yet. I have two kids under five and my life is chaotic. Between working and being there for Emmett and chasing two little boys, and cleaning up the messes all three make, I'm done. I feel like I never get a single moment to myself and now somehow I have to fit in a new baby. I swear I'll go crazy this time around."

"Maybe Emmett can help. You know he adores his sons and he loves you so much, I'm sure he will be more supportive this time."

Emmett was one of those men who truly believed that pregnancy was normal and natural and not a disease, therefore the pregnant woman should be able to carry on with her life as if she wasn't pregnant.

It had been a bone of contention both times Rose was carrying the babies, and this time I could see it would be even harder for her.

"If he says one more time that women in other countries work out in the fields throughout their labour, and just pause to squat and give birth then put the baby in a sling onto their backs and keep working, I swear I may kill him."

I'd heard him say that innumerable times and I was considering buying the gun for Rose myself.

"Maybe make him wear one of those sympathy pregnancy apron things and see how he likes his back broken and his ankles swollen twice the normal size," I suggested.

"It still won't get me any 'me' time," she lamented.

"Then sit Emmett down and explain you need him to take over for one day on weekends. Lots of women do that. If he has the kids Saturdays, and takes them to the beach or whatever, then you can do your own thing, and maybe you have them Sunday so he gets a break as well."

"Then we never spend any time as a family," she replied.

"Okay, then he gets every second Sunday off and the alternate ones are family days."

"That may work. Do you think Emmett could keep the kids alive if he was the only one in charge, though?"

Her face dropped and she hurriedly apologized.

"God, Bella, I am so stupid at times. I didn't mean that. I'm not going to try and make that sound better, just forgive me for saying something so cruel and thoughtless."

"I do know what you meant, Rose. You merely mean Emmett is incompetent.

I've pretty much accepted what happened was nobody's fault except for the person who took Angela and killed her. It would be ridiculous to think we could have spent every minute of every day with a girl her age and this is Forks. Who would think there could be a monster amongst us and nobody recognises him as such? My own father ran out of suspects within a day. There just aren't many known criminals here, probably because the place is so small that everyone notices what everyone else does and suspect behaviour would soon stick out like a sore thumb. No other girls have ever gone missing here."

"What about the Biers girl that Charlie was looking for just before, Angela...?"

"She lived in Seattle ad they were merely checking around here because some drivers thought they saw someone who looked like her description hitch hiking just out of town. It was never proven she even passed through here."

"But they never found her."

"Charlie always thought maybe if she didn't get a lift with anyone, then she wandered into the woods," I replied. "That's why I thought maybe Angela had, too."

"I still feel her here, around us," Rose admitted.

"Do you feel her sibling?" I asked, needing to tell someone what we hoped was happening.

"Bella, are you pregnant?"

"We don't know yet. Three more days and we will know. Let's just say Edward did everything within his power to make that happen, and we are hopeful."

She sat up straighter and grinned.

"I guess this will actually be awesome. We will have little babies at the same time. They'll get to play together and grow up to be besties. I hope we both have girls."

"Rose, I never thought I'd ever be happy or hopeful again. Edward and I are so bonded, nothing will ever part us again. He's amazing. He's truly my One and I always knew that. He makes me so happy and I just want everything to be perfect. I know it is already, even if we never have another child.

We want to but we don't need to.

Our happiness is not dependent on us having more kids. They would be a bonus."

"I'm so happy for you, but you have that pale, drawn look that early pregnancy gifts us with. I've seen it in the mirror lately so I know what I'm talking about. I bet you are pregnant."

"Don't steal our name," I warned.

"So long as you don't have Charlotte picked out , we are safe, because I have always loved that name and had it picked with both the boys."

"And what, Emmett wouldn't let you use that name for a boy?" I joked.

"Hey, if this one is another boy, God forbid, I will probably dress him in pink and give him a girl's name anyway," she replied, laughing. "I feel so much better. I shall do as you suggested and make Emmett help out more after work with the boys each afternoon and threaten to leave them alone in his charge on Saturdays if he doesn't start pulling his weight."

"Did he tell you about the nursery makeover?" I asked and we both went into that room and Rose loved everything.

"All shiny and new. I'd love to just toss all the boys baby gear away and have everything fresh again but that's just a dream. I love all the white furniture."

"We could always paint your stuff. How hard could it be?" I said.

We went and bought paint and started sanding back her stained crib and highchair and got one coat on them before I had to head home to prepare dinner.

Halfway through doing the vegetables, I looked up in surprise. The gate was opening, so Edward was home early today. That's right, he did say if it was quiet he'd try.

"Hey, look who is home, go say hello to Daddy," I told Bear and he stood as still as a statue then snarled at the sound of a car pulling up at the back door.

I frowned and went to the door and there stood James' car and the man himself.

"Hey. I still have the card to the gate and you haven't changed the code, naughty girl. I just need to pick up a few things I left here then I'll get out of your way," he stated.

"It's all in boxes. Edward redecorated the room so he put all your bits and pieces into a couple of cardboard cartons. Just wait while I put Bear in another room."

"Still doesn't like me much, then," James laughed.

I dragged the dog into the bathroom and shut the door, then let James inside and he carried his stuff and stowed it in the trunk.

Then he returned inside again and his mood seemed to change to deadly serious.

"Bella, I want you to come away somewhere with me. Now."

"Why would I do that, James? You and I are long done and I know we were never married anyway."

"You will come with me because I can give you something Edward can't. Something you want very much."

"I can't think of a single thing I'd want from you," I replied, feeling annoyed.

He handed me a photo and I gasped in shock.

"Where did you get this? How did you make her look this age? Is this done on one of those FBI sites where they change a child's photo to see how they'd look now, if they were still alive?"

"No, Bella. I took the photo myself yesterday and printed it out for you."

I started at him, then back at the photo.

"That's not possible. Angela is dead. She was identified by her DNA."

"Yeah, about that. Victoria worked at the morgue and she may have faked that test. She took in some samples she'd prepared earlier, at home."

"Why would she do that?" I asked, not convinced any of what he said was true.

"Because the cops were getting a little too nosy and we needed to head them off. Charlie was a determined bastard, and he was getting too close."

"Then who was she? The girl that died? Did you kill her?"

"Bella, I don't make a habit of killing people. Angela is proof of that. Though maybe at one point we were thinking if Vicky managed to have a kid to Edward, we might involve him in an accident so the kid inherited. Victoria would have become the trustee. Then maybe something fatal may have happened to the kid, if there was a way she could then inherit as the last remaining member of his family.

I mean, Carlisle and Esme aren't blood. A widow is closer than adoptive parents.

I'd worked for the company that was waiting to sign over the trust to Edward. He was too distracted to fucking listen and accept it. Okay, his kid was missing but who refuses to accept billions of dollars because he's off playing Boy Scout?

Just when we were panicking because we had your kid and couldn't think of any way to get the money or shake of that fucking persistent father of yours, it all came together.

Victoria was at work, at the morgue, when this body was brought in, handed to us on a plate.

She died in the woods.

Your father was elsewhere hunting for your kid so we had time to alter her appearance and dress her in Angela's clothes. She was pretty close match, though a blonde. Victoria tried to dye her hair.

Angela's hair is pretty distinctive, as you know. She botched it and had to shave the poor dead girl's head instead because the dye job looked pretty bad."

"But why?"

"You Dad heard the news of course, and the fucker insisted on seeing the body. Luckily he stood well back and cried the whole time so we managed to fool him. Then they did the autopsy and she died of a dicky ticker. We never touched her or saw her alive. She was just manna from Heaven. Exactly what the doctor ordered, so to speak. Her name was Bree Biers but her parents were dead and all she had was her brother. I guess he thinks she was a runaway, and assumes she's living somewhere with some guy, happy and safe or whatever. We saved him the heartbreak of knowing his sister was dead."

He fiddled with his Galaxy phone and held it up for me to see the screen.

Victoria was sitting in a room, and she smiled at the screen then turned her phone away. A girl of about eighteen was with her, seated at a piano. My entire body started shaking, and I felt like I'd be sick, but my heart was racing, and filled with hope.

"Play," Victoria ordered.

The girl started playing a tune I instantly recognised. Edward and Angela had be writing it together, four years ago. They'd never finished it, but she kept playing to the end.

She turned her head and I stared incredulously at my child; older, far prettier, but definitely mine. Angela is alive. My heart stuttered and I saw my vision try to fade as I attempted to black out, but I shook it away and grasped the phone.

"You found her, James," I said in awe, shocked to my soul.

"No, you idiot, I took her. I've had her all along, waiting for your moron husband to accept his legacy. And now he has. There are two rather substantial charities just listed, and he's bankrolling them. Edward is finally rich. It's payday, Bella. I figure he'll cough up twice as much for the two of you, so you need to come with me."

I froze.

Never go to a second location is the basic rule to follow if anyone tries to grab you. James wasn't touching me, he was sitting on the table top merely watching me.

I mouthed words silently, like a fish. I had to go with him but I had to leave a message for Edward.

James saw my intention and grabbed the phone back, holding it just out of my reach.

"Say hello to Mommy, Angela," he ordered. "You know, I'd have kept her forever if that's what it took. I figure an even billion is fair for four years room and board, don't you?"

The girl , Angela, my girl, walked closer and took the phone from Victoria.

"Hello Mommy. Are you coming to get me? I've waited a long time. I miss you and Daddy and Hair Bear." Her voice was rather flat, without much hope.

"See, Bella, she is waiting for you. But, you know, if you don't want to come , there's no problem. Oh wait, maybe there is., With our first kidnap victim, that was the lovely Marie I told you about...well, Victoria took a dislike to her and she ended up dead. We got a ransom but all they got back was a dead kid. So, I'm thinking maybe you need to come protect your daughter so nothing like that goes down this time."

"Take me to her," I replied. My life was nothing compared to Angela's. "Please James. I'll do whatever you want. Just take me to Angela. You have to let me come with you. Edward will pay you whatever you want. You know that, just don't hurt us."

He was smirking lazily then he frowned and walked to the window.

"Oh fuck. A complication," James muttered, looking outside. "It seems Edward has come home early. You need to tell him you are leaving with me and not let him in on our secret, because Vicky wouldn't like that. You have to convince Edward you want to come, but not give him any hint as to why. Okay? You listening to this, Vicky? If Bella lets anything slip, then you know what to do."

"Be my pleasure," Victoria laughed. "This one is too like her mother for my liking. And she has long overstayed her welcome."

"Don't hurt her," I pleaded. "Edward will pay you every penny he has to get her back."

"It's entirely up to you. Her life is in your hands, my pretty little Bella. Now lets go tell hubby we are leaving."

I let him lead me outside and Edward was just alighting from his car.

"What are you doing here?" he growled at James.

"I'm just here to get what's mine. Thanks for putting everything in the boxes. Oh, and Bella's decided she wants to come too. It seems she likes me more than she likes you, after all."

I stood still and looked at Edward.

He wasn't fooled for a moment, of course.

"It's true. I'm leaving with James," I informed him calmly as my stomach churned.

Edward frowned and stepped forward.

"Nope, no touching. She's mine again now," James warned. "Come on, Bella. Get in the car."

"Don't be absurd. Bella is not going anywhere with you," Edward stated crossly.

James raised an eyebrow at me.

"I'm going and you can't stop me," I said, searching my brain for the right words. "Edward, you have no idea how much you hurt me by going to Victoria. You spoiled everything and I can't even sleep with you without imagining you doing those same things to her. It's just not working for me. I'm sorry. I tried, really hard. I got my period today and it just seems like we were trying too hard to recapture what we had and I'm tired of living the lie. We can never be what we were. I want to go with James. You aren't good for me."

His eyes searched mine and I held his gaze, determinedly.

"Bella, no. This was working. You are just disappointed because we didn't manage to conceive. Come here. Let's talk about this."

"I don't want to. Living here, in this house with all the memories...that's you, Edward, not me. I need a fresh start. I warned you from the first time we were together again that I didn't think we could make it if we tried again, and I was right. If you have any love for me at all, let me go. If I find this is a mistake, I'll come back. I can come back, can't I James?"

"Sure," he replied, opening up his arms. "I'm not forcing her to do anything she doesn't want to do. Look, I'll get into the car. You choose, Bella. No pressure. Stay here with him ,or come with me. Okay?"

I stepped back as Edward tried to grab my arm and I shook him away.

"Goodbye, Edward. I did try, you know. I did think we had a chance but I was wrong. I'm so sorry. I want to go with James, truly, more than I ever wanted anything before in my entire life."

He looked into my eyes and saw that statement was the absolute truth, and stopped in shock . He could read me like a book. I stepped around him.

"Touch me, Bella, then tell me you still want to leave me."

I raised my hand and placed it on his arm and stood there.

"I still want to go."

Edward's eyes were full of pain and confusion and I dropped my hand back down and closed off my thoughts to him.

He stared into my eyes and I bit my lip and stared back, as hard and cold as I could fake it.

"Please don't do this, Bella. Please stay."

He grabbed me and started kissing my lips and I forced them to be still and ignore his own lips. I made no effort to return his kiss, and stood there as still and cold as marble. After a minute, he gave up and let me go.

His hands were balled into fists and tears were leaking from his eyes.

I got into the front passenger's seat.

James shrugged at Edward.

"Looks like the best man won after all. I'll call you, Edward. Let you know how your girl settles in. Okay? Don't turn your phone off. Talk to you soon."

The gate opened as he fed the card and code in, and I didn't look back. It would have killed me.


	2. Chapter 2

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Thanks whoever recommended this story. I do get nominated now and then for different awards but never win. But I'm glad someone here thought it worthy of a mention. I'm sure it's up against stories with a million readers, so let's just savour this moment, and acknowledge, it truly is an honour just to be nominated. I'm unworthy. xxxx

Now back to the story.

X~x~X~x~X

I Was Broken

Chapter 9

BPOV

"What happens next, James. Why didn't you just tell Edward you had Angela years ago instead of keeping her? He'd have paid you every penny of this trust."

"Because, obviously the FBI or whoever would have been onto that immediately. A guy inherits billions and immediately takes the cash? And he goes back to living on a doctor's salary? The bastards would have tracked us down. No, it would only work if we waited."

"But he's going to get the cash and give it to you now anyway. How will it be different?"

"He's set up a series of charities. He's already funded one in your name and one in Angela's but the others are still being finalized so it's simple.

Vicky gives him the name of a new charity, that's been set up already in Victoria's new temporary name and he decides he'd rather the bulk of his inheritance goes into it. She splashes a bit of cash, builds a fucking orphanage or something, then, oh no, the management of the charity abscond with the rest of the funds. It happens all the time.

I have a place to go, and a new identity set up and it's somewhere where off shore accounts just pave the way to happiness. No questions asked. I grease the wheel, they keep me in their country with no extradition treaty and I live like a king for the rest of my natural life. I'm obviously not telling you where, but it's a lot warmer than fucking Forks."

"And you'll let Angela and I go?"

"Sure. And do you want to know why? You and I are going to be seen around town together now and then. All happy and loved up. In a few weeks I tell Edward you changed your mind and ran out on me just like you ran out on him. I'm heartbroken and leaving Washington to start anew.

Meanwhile, he's had the ransom demand and there's no way he will get the authorities involved, not after all this time. He'd never risk anything going wrong, and he'll have had a little cry over you leaving him and be ripe to want everything going smoothly to get his kid back.

Once he transfers the money, Vicky's charity plays philanthropists and we do our good work, then we transfer the rest on, into the offshore account.

The kidnappers arrange to leave Angela somewhere where he'll find her, but by then he knows you have left me and he will never know I was involved with the kidnapping, because you will never tell him.

Angela's never seen my face, only Vicky's.

I haven't quite figured out the part where Vicky somehow found you and kidnapped you as well, but it won't happen for weeks yet. In theory.

Maybe she'll just see you somewhere and nab you and then she can tell him he's getting a two for one deal.

You will never mention my name, apart from the story about how we tried to reconcile and it didn't work so you left me, and I went to deepest, darkest Africa to get over my heartbreak.

I mean, if you did, then I'd have to pay someone to hurt Angela. I imagine with the fortune I will own, I'll have a lot of friends willing to do anything and everything, just so they can be my friends.

I'll be a generous host and they'll be my puppets.

How would you like living, knowing anytime, anyplace, someone was after your daughter? She's eighteen. She will leave home one day and accidents happen, Bella. If you can live with waiting for a phone call telling you your daughter is dead, then sure, tell Edward everything.

You are used to her being dead by now, but this time you will have to identify her body and you'll see it is really her.

Your choice, Babe. My freedom equals Angela's life continuing. So long as I'm safe, so is she."

"But if Edward knows Victoria was involved, he won't stop until he finds her and kills her."

"Yeah, that's a shame. Surely by now you've figured it out. I don't care about people, Bella. If anything, I enjoy their pain and suffering. It was a blast living with you and seeing your eyes drift to Angela's photos and watch you swallow your grief day after day.

And letting you talk about her. I loved how broken your voice was.

Victoria thinks I love her, but I can honestly say I have no idea what love is, and I'm lucky that way.

I'll set her up to take the fall, and I don't imagine Edward will engage in meaningful dialogue before he kills her. Anyway, he already knows she is a lying bitch. If he has to choose between who is telling the truth, who is he going to believe?

A lying cow who seduced him and took him away from his grieving wife, or his wonderful Bella who has no idea who Vicky's masked accomplice was? I mean, if it had been me, you would have recognized my voice, right? But you didn't, because it wasn't me. He's another man entirely. He just shares the same name as me. Angela knows I'm named James so you don't have to watch your tongue. Just no surnames."

"I don't care about any of this. I can live with you escaping and getting off scott free if it gets Angela back home safe and sound. I will never tell, James. All I want is my daughter back and for her to have some semblance of a normal life."

"And I believe you, Bella. I'm not worried you will ever betray me. You know the price. I took her once and kept her hidden for four long years and nobody ever twigged that I had a hand in it. Charlie was getting a little too suspicious but then he lost his shit completely after she was found dead so he forgot I existed. I like that in a copper. He cared more about the bottom of the next bottle and getting to where he thought she was than finding out who took her. It was a nice touch that Bree Biers died of natural causes. Took the heat off. Nobody killed anybody."

"But Victoria killed Marie?"

"Yeah, so see, she deserves whatever punishment she gets. I may have embellished the truth a little. Marie was nothing to me, just a paycheck. I never loved her or even touched her. I don't like little girls like that. Hell, as you know, I'm not even that keen on big girls. Give me a pretty boy and it's entirely different. Boys are beautiful, Bella. I can see why you love Edward. In another life, I'd have gone for him myself. He has those beautiful eyes and that sexy bedhair thing going, and when he doesn't shave for a day or two... Yeah, lets just say the only reason I ever wanted to join you two in your bedroom was because I really would have liked to fuck him.

That's why I left. Every time I heard him crying out your name... I wished I was you. Who'd ever imagine that? I wished I was this weak little crybaby girl who got to have Edward Cullen fuck her silly every night. You should tell me about the things he did to you sometime. I call him My Pretty, but I expect you do as well."

I stayed silent.

I didn't know what one said when one's supposed second husband admitted he fantasized about your first husband.

All the time we feared she had been taken by some sexual predator, she was actually completely safe from anything like that.

No wonder he had to copy his seduction technique from a romance novel. He had no idea what women wanted. I guess the weekly three minute sessions of sex we'd had together had actually been as bad for him as they'd been for me. And I had been wrong about whose name he uttered under his breath. Pretty, not Vicky. At least now I understood why he allowed me to always have that photo of Edward and Angela and I on my bedside cabinet.

He'd been thinking of Edward while he was fucking me. I guess that was the only way he could do it at all.

He'd always used a condom with me, and my std testing had been clear but I had dodged a bullet for sure.

I couldn't help remembering Rosalie and her perception when she and I'd spent an afternoon drinking while James and I were a supposed married couple. She'd have a skinful then start talking about 'Jamie Boy', declaring she had never been wrong before but from the minute she laid eyes on him, she had picked him as being gay.

Apparently he had not looked for one second at her impressive rack, and I'd just put it down to her surprise that any man would find me attractive yet not notice her.

It seemed Bear and Rose had his number from the beginning. If I didn't listen to my friend, I should have at least listened to my dog.

"Okay, this is where we leave the car. I hope you like flying and don't barf."

He led me to a light private plane in a little airfield somewhere in Seattle and soon we were flying. He eventually pointed to a small island and told me he held the lease on it, and had since just before he took Angela.

I did feel sick to my stomach but it was anticipation at seeing my daughter again with my own eyes.

The house was situated in a small clearing in the middle of a mass of jungle to I doubted many people knew it even existed. James brought the plane down and turned off the engine.

Victoria was standing, waiting as we landed, and James pulled on a balaclava and exited the plane, lifting out a large box of food supplies.

"Hey Darling," he said, kissing her cheek. "I don't think Bella wants to waste time on pleasantries, so we will just take her to her kid."

He turned back to me.

"She's inside. Normally she's got the freedom of the island. It's not like she could swim to the mainland from here."

The house was small and built like a fortress, with thick walls and doors and a lot of locks. No natural light intruded inside but a fluorescent flickered in the kitchen we passed through.

He put the box down on a wooden table and led the way and in moments, I was standing in front of my daughter.

Our daughter.

"Angela," I whispered, holding out my hand to touch her.

She frowned and looked at her captors, waiting for their permission, then when James nodded, she stepped forward towards me.

"Why didn't you come before? You've kept me waiting a long time."

"I'm so sorry. We didn't know where you were."

"Why didn't Grandpa Charlie find me? He's a policeman."

I felt the tears run down my face. Charlie was probably still searching for her. How horrible for him, that he'd rushed himself to the Other Side and not found her there either.

But it was amazing for me.

"Your father and I have thought about you every day since you disappeared. We love you, Angie, and we always wanted you back with us. I'm just so happy to find you at last."

"Okay, let's get this show on the road. Victoria and I are flying back though I'll keep a low profile, of course. Bella, I'll be back in a week to take you out and about in Forks. Angela, tell Bella why it would be silly to try and swim back to shore, apart from the obvious reason that you'd drown before you got a fraction of the way there."

"There's sharks," Angie replied, her voice wooden again.

She turned to me.

"I'll show them to you. You can see them from the clifftop."

I smiled and took her hand in my own. As much as I longed to crush her to my chest in a hug, I figured I'd be better taking it slowly, and gaining her trust. She was so like Edward now that nobody would ever doubt this was really her. Her eyes were his eyes and she still had her beautiful long hair.

She was alive!

I still couldn't process that thought fully.

Four years of grieving that she was dead and all the time she was here, waiting for us to find her.

I had no idea where we were, what direction we had flown from Seattle.

"Bella, this island is not on a flight path and it's not quite Club Med around here. Any vessels that pass will be of the high water pirate variety so keep your head down and don't be doing anything reckless by lighting a bonfire or anything of that nature. You'd be raped and murdered if you asked any of them for help, and so would your daughter.

There's water and food. It's not like what you are used to eating but it will keep you alive. We're not made of money. Yet. A million dollars doesn't last as long as one would expect.

Angela will take you hiking and swimming. It's a nice little Paradise, really, even if the neighbourhood is full of cut throats and criminals. Now, we are leaving so enjoy your reunion and I'll be back in seven days for our date. Wear something pretty. Vicky's put a few outfits into a chest for you."

We stayed inside as the plane left and Angie took me to show me where my bed was and I was pleased that it was beside hers.

The room was in the basement, and we had to climb down through a trapdoor in the floor, so I guessed no lights would show anyone was here at nighttime. Not that anyone but the man in the moon would be able to see them anyway.

The bathroom was pretty rudimentary but Angela told me there was a proper one upstairs that she used when James and Victoria weren't here.

"We have to lock this trapdoor from the inside so if any pirates come, they can't hurt us. You can see if anybody has landed, on the monitor. No-one has ever stopped off here before, only him and her."

I scrutinized her as she walked in front of me. She showed no outward signs of physical abuse.

She seemed to have been cared for properly.

Obviously her mental state was not like most girls her age.

She was going to need help coping when Edward came and rescued us. I had no idea how he would ever find us, but he must. He had to come and get us and bring us back home so we could be a family again. Anything else would be unthinkable.

She showed me how the generator worked and where the rainwater collected in the tanks outside the house. Then took me back inside to the basement.

"This is where we hide if anybody comes. Nobody ever has but they said the only visitors we will ever get will be pirates. And they do bad things to girls."


	3. Chapter 3

I Was Broken

Chapter 10

BPOV

"Maybe I should look through the food James left and start dinner," I suggested once Angela had completed the tour of the house and immediate grounds. I didn't like the thought of exploring further afield as twilight descended.

Like he had warned, the food supplies were basic and we ate sandwiches and fresh fruit before locking ourselves in the 'dungeon' as my daughter called our bedroom.

"Where's Daddy Why didn't he come too?" she asked as we changed into old sweatpants and cami's. Our wardrobe choices were not vast, but I recognized some of my old clothing amongst the items in the wooden chest. James had clearly taken them from my bag of clothes I'd discarded during our brief pretend marriage, after I'd attempted to upgrade my wardrobe. I'd suddenly realized all I wore were blacks and browns and sad colours and wanted fresh clothes for our fresh start, doomed as it turned out to be.

Some of the jeans were, however, items I'd only recently tossed in the charity bag so I knew James had been back in the cottage after he'd officially moved out. We hadn't seen him as any kind of threat and had become lax and complacent. Not even changing the gate code; that was just laziness. Every time we changed it we had to inform all the people who were welcome to let themselves in; Carlisle and Esme, Rose and Emmett, Alice and Jasper, but still, this was a lesson to be albeit far too late now.

"Daddy will come, never doubt that. Daddy loves you so much and anyway, he has to come to hear that song you finished without him. He is going to be so proud that you did that."

"The piano was already here when they brought me to this place. James said I could use it, seeing there was no tv or anything else to do when it rains. Victoria doesn't like me playing it but when she isn't here, I play every day. I remember all the songs Daddy showed me how to play so playing them reminds me of him, and of you, sitting there listening. I pretend we are all together, somewhere else. At home maybe, in the cottage. Do you still live in the cottage?"

"Of course we do. We had to keep it so it would be there for you when you came back to us."

"Is my bedroom still the same?"

"Nobody has touched a thing," I replied, not wanting her to know how many policemen had been in there, searching for clues, looking for childish love notes or photos of the mystery boy she had gone to meet.

She smiled and relaxed, and I smiled back and worried.

Of course the biggest worry was the knowledge James probably intended leaving Angela and I here once he got his money. No matter what he said, the simple truth was that dead men told no tales and if we hadn't managed to find this island or even suspect it existed while Angie was alive, how was it going to suddenly occur to anyone to look here when we were dead?

Even if Victoria showed Edward the same live feed on the Galaxy to prove she was alive, would anyone else who hadn't seen it believe him?

He didn't have a father-in-law in law enforcement now who would indulge him with all the help he could assemble to follow any lead, no matter how tenuous.

And that poor dead girl's body had been positively identified and cremated. There was no body to dig up and check again.

As far as the world knew, this girl sitting in front of me as I brushed out her beautiful long auburn hair, was very much dead, for four years already.

Clearly the only hope we had would rely on my few visits to Forks when James was going to show Edward that I was with him voluntarily. I had to somehow tell Edward everything even if I had no idea where the Hell this island was. I had my watch, maybe if I timed the next flight back and then Edward would at least know we were out at sea x minutes away. That had to be something.

I'd woefully underestimated both James and Victoria. I'd dismissed both as being, if anything, a little less bright than average yet they'd managed to extract a million dollars from desperate parents, in exchange for a dead body.

I was glad to have learned which way James bent though, because it relieved all lingering fears about his interest in Angie. Had she been a boy, no doubt there'd be added damage to her body and psyche, because James would never have resisted the urge to take advantage.

He'd admitted he lacked humanity and the ability to feel any empathy for anyone, so had he held a hostage of his preferred gender, that victim would have been just something to play with and keep him amused.

If James imagined the little farce of parading me around town to prove we were together and a couple would in any way lead Edward to assume the kidnapper 'James' was another man of the same name, then he was stupid, and sadly, I was starting to believe that wasn't the case.

Even if I complied and kept his secret, why would he let Angela, the only witness, live when she could implicate him even if just by the sound of his voice?

She must have heard James and Victoria talking together and from that context, nobody would ever buy that it was some other 'James'.

I was sure he had other plans for me. He wasn't intending handing me back. Once everyone accepted I'd left Edward and returned to James, then run out on him, I had a feeling I was as good as dead. Nobody would even wonder where I'd gone. I would be labelled as being as flighty as my mother and only spoken of when some other wife in town did a runner.

"Just like Renee Swan, and her daughter. Remember that Bella? Had everything to stay for. Edward Cullen loved her so dearly yet she threw that love back in his face and took off with that creep James. Then left him. I mean, that part was inevitable, but leaving Edward after all they had managed to get through together? Just shows, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

So, our fate was in my shaky and incompetent hands.

Angela curled up in my bed and lay beside me and I stroked her hair and wished Edward was here with us. Even if things didn't end well, it would have been nice to spend a little while together and to see the joy in his eyes when he knew our baby girl was alive.

No matter what, I wanted to be the one who told him.

James had said it would take time to set everything up so somehow on my first trip home next week, I had to get Edward to talk to me, despite the blasphemous lies I'd said. I had no idea how this would happen, because James would probably stick to my side like superglue, but if I could just have a single minute alone with my husband, I would give him the short version.

Also, it would be to James' advantage to have me convince Edward that Angie was alive. He truly would hand over every last dollar to have her back, so maybe I could convince James to let me talk with Edward.

I sat there as still as a statue all night as our daughter slept; just watching her was fascinating. She was alive. It was quite surreal and I feared drifting off in case I woke up and found it was all a dream. For me, knowing I may soon be dead didn't seem that tragic. Being here, in this grotty cabin on this island was as close to Heaven as I could have ever hoped. I had my daughter back. But Angie had to come out of this alive.

Edward would get through anything if he had her back.

X~x~X

I did sleep, somehow, and when we awoke, Angie was excited to show me all the hidden tracks and trails she had discovered over the years she had been here.

I made a rudimentary breakfast and packed plenty of lunch and snacks, calculating how much food was allotted for each day if James was returning six days from now.

The small kitchen cupboard held just a couple of old chipped plates and cups, and the basics like coffee, tea, sugar, and tins of meat and soup.

So, we eat everything fresh that would otherwise spoil first, then dip into those canned food supplies.

There was a thermos flask so I made up coffee to go, and we put everything in Angie's backpack that I hadn't seen since the day she disappeared. The sight of it sent chills down my spine. I hadn't even remembered to tell Dad and the other police that she had taken this with her.

How weird. I must have known it was missing, but it had been so inconsequential that it's existence had evaded my memory.

It hadn't mattered but it did show how much my brain had shut down that day.

I couldn't ever think about it without vomiting and my stomach felt kind of queasy. I suspected memories had little to do with this, and it was more down to the baby inside me. I could never forget those earliest, happy days when I realized Angela had been conceived. Of course it was quite scandalous to be knocked up in High School, and no doubt the moral majority in Forks had been outraged, but Edward and I had been thrilled.

Silly as that sounds, none of what we had done ever seemed wrong. We were in love and love knew no boundaries. And that one time with the condom had been just not acceptable to either of us.

Maybe we should have waited and gotten me safely on the Pill, but once I was pregnant, I went to school every single day with my head led high and my boyfriend proudly at my side. None of the students had even so much as teased me or called me names. I guess true love is obvious to the whole world.

It had been a rocky start, not being able to just become an instant family, but we both knew our educations had to continue and Edward had never once pushed to try and make me grow up faster than I could.

I loved sharing a room at college with Rose though I spent more time sleeping in Edward's dorm that I ever spent in hers, but it made everything just a little more 'normal' and I got to experience what all my fellow students had, plus the security of knowing where my true love was already. Sneaking over to his dorm had been exciting, and I even enjoyed the so called walk of shame in the morning, when I and quite a few other girls made our way back to our own rooms after a night of passionate bliss.

Edward had explored every inch of my body and remembered where everything was from the very first time we had stripped off naked together to see what we each hid under our clothing.

It was innocent fun, back then. Neither of us had siblings, so we hadn't even ever caught a glimpse of a naked person of the opposite gender.

It had been like unwrapping a present and wanting to play with the shiny new toy inside.

I remember being shocked at both the width and length of his penis because the drawings in Sex Ed had clearly been of a man a lot less well endowed.

His eyes had lit up at the sight of my naked breasts and he'd leaned forward and sucked on my nipple before even touching them with his hands.

All too soon, we'd stroked every inch of one another and some places had responded more than others. I don't know why some women moan about their men being unaware of where their clit is located, because Edward found mine in seconds, and when he put his fingers inside me, he hit that other spot and continued stroking it until I felt so tense I was sure I would spontaneously combust.

Then he'd given me my very first orgasm, by stroking my clit with his other hand as well at the same time and I'd shattered into a million pieces.

I guess Sex Gods are born, not made.

I dare say he'd already seen the town map in his father's medical textbooks but all the same, the boy had not needed a compass.

From that day it was obvious things were going to happen at an accelerated pace. We talked about what our first time would be like, factoring in the buzz, and had grinned like lunatics every time we touched, always wondering if this would be the time we went completely out of control and just did the deed.

Even though we had planned the whole setting for our first time, I knew we'd never wait that long, and Charlie had unwittingly given us the green light by trusting us at home alone that night.

Like we were trustworthy when it came to making love.

Making love had led to making our baby.

Or should I say babies, because the way I was feeling was reminiscent of the way I'd felt back then, back when we first suspected our recklessness had consequences.

"Mummy, you are smiling, what are you thinking about?" Angela asked, holding back palm fronds as I tried to keep pace with her.

"Your Daddy. I love him so much and I can't wait until we are all back together again."

It may never happen, but if it didn't happen in this lifetime, it would happen in the next.

She was right about the view from the cliff. We could see sharks swimming about lazily until a fish or small school of fish swam the wrong way and started a feeding frenzy.

"Lie down, there's a boat out there on the horizon," Angela urged me and I lay on my belly beside her and watched the distant speck come closer.

I knew pirate ships no longer flew the Jolly Roger, if they ever really had, and modern day pirates didn't wear eye patches and have wooden legs. They looked just like any other vessel and crew, and merely sailed up alongside whatever boat they wanted to steal and jumped aboard to overtake control and toss the real owners into the sea to await their fate.

I had no way of knowing if what James had said was the truth. If this boat was full of bikini clad girls, and guys drinking champagne, I'd consider risking our lives and waving them down.

It was too far away to make much out, so I started gathering together small sticks and dry palm fronds and building a bonfire, then realize I had nothing to light it with.

Maybe they'd look up and notice a crazy lady jumping up and down, waving a palm leaf in the air above her head.

"Mom, please, they'll see you," Angie warned. I lay on my belly beside her and waited.

A couple of men in dark clothing, wearing black beanies on their heads sat on the deck of a fishing boat and I let them go without any attempt to attract attention. For all I knew, this was what pirates looked like these days.

X~x~X

EPOV

"That's complete and utter bullshit and you know it."

For once, I appreciated Rose's tendency to cut to the chase and not pretty anything up. She had arrived here after breakfast the day after Bella left , annoyed because she had taken a rare day off work to paint baby furniture with Bella, and my wife had not arrived as expected.

Now she was here every day to rehash what happened and try to make sense of it.

I swallowed down some of the casserole she'd brought over with her, leftovers from her own meal with Emmett and the boys.

Apparently I had to eat, and she was making sure I consumed one meal each day by standing over me while I ate, as she hypothesized, and tried new theories.

"Everyone is entitled to one mistake, and Bella used hers up when she married a gay man. There's no fucking way she would ever go back to him. You needed to be in on our Book Club nights."

"How would talking about books have helped me?" I asked, confused.

"Edward, Book Club is just a name for a group of females sitting around getting tanked. I can tell you now, James was as exciting in bed as a wet fish and he could not have found Bella's clit if it had come with a neon arrow pointing the way. And he bugged her for backdoor sex. That was his only request when it came to bedroom shenanigans. Don't worry, she never let him sodomize her."

"Good to know," I replied feeling kind of faint. "But the fact is, he wasn't holding a gun on her, and she chose to leave with him. I could have protected her if he was threatening to hurt her if she didn't go with him."

"Then maybe the threat was against someone else. You, maybe. And I don't mean that scrawny douche was going to bitch slap you or hit you with his handbag. What did she say?"

"She said a lot of things that I don't care to think about but basically she chose him over me."

"I call bullshit again. You know when she's lying, she is useless at pulling the wool over anyone's eyes. Think about everything she said and tell me one true thing she said."

"Okay. She said she wanted to go with him more than anything she had ever wanted in her life."

"So, why would she say that? What possible reason would she have to want to accompany a gay man out of your house? He had something on her, mark my words. Something he was using as leverage."

"Did she tell you we were trying for a baby?" I asked. I hadn't wanted to share this extra disappointment before.

"Yes, and that's another thing. Why would a pregnant Bella keep another child of yours away from you? She knows losing Angela nearly killed you both."

"She said she got her period the day she left."

"Right, well that's easy enough to prove or disprove. I saw her unpack her groceries, and she had bought some sanitary supplies. She said she'd tossed out what she had leftover from last month in the hope she wouldn't need them anyway, then chickened out and bought a new lot in case she was being overly optimistic."

Rose charged off to our bathroom and jubilantly came back holding up two unopened boxes.

"She did not get her period. So, another lie to make you let her walk away. Why would James want her back? What the fuck is in it for him?"

"I have no idea. He didn't seem that bothered when I moved back in with Bella. He stayed here in the guestroom on and off for a few weeks afterwards, even. How could he have borne watching us together of he was in love with her? It makes no sense."

"Unless he wants your baby for some reason. Fuck me, you don't think he took Angie and now he's taken her replacement? Sorry, but you know what I mean? Do you have a secret stash of cash that would make waiting nine months worth the effort? He has shown zero interest in Bella for months, now she's pregnant, and bam! he's back and he's tricked her into leaving with him. If he's been in the house then he's seen the nursery. Most normal people do not make the nursery before they know the baby is on it's way. He thinks she is pregnant. She probably is, but he has probably assumed...fuck, I left my test stick here. I bet that's it, Edward. He saw the positive test stick, assumed it was hers , and took her."

It was an intriguing thought and waiting nine months would be well worth it for nine billion dollars, less what I'd spent already.

It was chickenfeed against what still remained for distribution.

He had wormed his way into our lives for no discernible reason, if he didn't really love Bella, and I had to admit he had never looked or acted like a man in love.

What had he gained? An access card to open our gate and a key to the front door. Nothing else, therefore they had to be what he wanted.

So he could come and take Bella whenever he chose to.

But what had he told her to make her lie to me and go with him?

I was sure she loved me and the things she had said may have applied months ago, but she wanted to stay in the cottage. I'd talked about building some grand new house for us and she'd rejected the idea out of hand.

And she knew how sex had been between Victoria and I. Three minutes of thrusting to get myself off so I could sleep. I hadn't told her about the one angry sex session so as far as she knew, I'd never get more than a F- rating from Vicky, so there was no way she imagined me doing the same things with that woman as I did with her.

My cell rang and I held up a finger to silence Rose and answered. It was Jay Jenks.

"Edward, I've had a request from a new charity, asking to be added to your list of beneficiaries. The woman who called cautioned me not to rush into funding any others until you speak to her. I'm just wondering if you know what this is about, and whether you want me to postpone the distribution of funds to the other charities you chose."

"I have no idea what you are talking about. Who was she?"

"She said she knew you and you would know what it meant if I told you her charity could fulfil both of your biggest regrets. She said she is the Dream Fairy and she has it in her power to restore to you the two things closest to your heart. So, I'm thinking maybe she smoked a little too much weed?"

I would have agreed but there was only one person on Earth who knew about the Dream Fairy and what I wanted from her. My habit of talking out loud in my sleep had revealed more than I was comfortable with Victoria ever knowing about my dreams, and nightmares.

"Just hold off and I'll get back to you. I'm not sure what this is all about, but I want to try and find out before we distribute everything, in case her foundation is more deserving," I replied, my curiosity aroused. What did she mean? Maybe she knew where and why Bella had gone with James. The two things I wanted from the Dream Fairy had obviously been to have Bella back in my arms and to turn back time to when Angela was alive and freeze frame it.

Nobody could give me the latter, but if Vic could help me get Bella home, I would fund her no doubt phony charity. What else was money for but to bring happiness, and I wanted some of that for myself. Money wouldn't make me happy, but Bella's return certainly would.

My cell rang again and I glanced at the call id.

"Victoria. How nice of you to call. Tell me the deal. I'm listening."


	4. Chapter 4

I Was Broken

Chapter 11

BPOV

By the time James was due to return, Angela and I were like old friends who had caught up and renewed our friendship. It was hard to reconcile this young woman with the fourteen year old child who had left. She was an adult, yet still vulnerable and wanting her Daddy.

"Do you have to go? What if he doesn't bring you back? What if he leaves me here alone forever?"

I stood in front of her and took her hands in my own.

"If he leaves you here alone, and the food runs out, I think you will have to take a chance and wave down one of the boats that passes. I don't know if James has told either of us the truth. He lies like other people breathe. I can't promise that whoever stops will be a decent person but it's better than starving to death. Don't you think? Angie, I don't know what to tell you to do for the best. I can only say James says whatever suits him so maybe those boats are simply fishing boats.

Don't say anything to James or Victoria if she comes with him, but your father has money now. They know already but they don't know you know and that might be important, or not. But if someone picks you up in their boat, you need to give them this cell number and tell them to call Edward Cullen because he will make them rich beyond their wildest dreams if they take you safely to him. I don't think even a pirate would pass up that offer. He has more than a million dollars, maybe a whole lot more. If he was willing to give Renee a million dollars then he'd give me a hundred times that so he is seriously rich, sweetheart.

Maybe tell them there's a minimum of ten million dollars in it for them. That should get their attention."

She hid the slip of paper down her bra and held onto my arm as we watched the plane land.

We'd spent this morning showering and washing our hair and sitting in the sun brushing one another's out as it dried. Her hair was amazing.

I'd cut a small lock from underneath near her neck and put it in my locket that Edward had given me the day we married, and I'd never taken off.

It was just about a dozen hairs but then I'd wound them up and slipped them inside with the tiny photo of the two of us and the one opposite of baby Angela.

She'd begged me to let her look at this locket every day and when the day came that I felt I was on my last trip with James, I'd leave it behind with her. Surely even he would act differently when crunch time came and betray himself and his intentions somehow.

No period had begun therefore I had to assume I was indeed pregnant and I was starting to feel queasy more often. Like now.

I turned and hugged Angie close and kissed her face a dozen times.

"Right, enough of the kissy kissy shit, here's your food supplies, I'll put them on the table. Mommy will be back in two or three days," James growled.

I looked up in surprise.

"I thought you said we were going for a single day, just to let Edward and the people in town see us together."

"Yeah well there's this thing at the hospital and everyone keeps asking if you will be there. It's a carnival type thing, raising money for a new baby unit or something. No doubt Edward wants to play the big man and toss them a substantial amount to make himself popular.

I think it would be good for you to see him and talk to him alone."

Okay, if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

"Get your shirt off, Bella."

"I beg your pardon?" I replied.

"Oh for God's sake, boobs are not appealing. I'm not trying to cop a feel. Take your shirt off, I want to wire you up. Like they do on telly when the Judas baddie sets his accomplices up with the cops to get a suspended sentence. This way, you and Pretty Boy can go chat and cry or whatever and I'll be wearing this...Bluetooth earpiece..,and it'll be like I'm right there beside you. So no talking out of school, Mommy Dearest, or I may just forget to bring you back. Or even to come back myself."

"Edward is not an idiot. He won't pay you a penny until he knows Angela is alive and safe, I can promise you that. Don't hurt her, James. I know you don't care about her as a person but remember this. She's worth what, ten million dollars?"

He laughed out loud and shook his head.

"I was planning on asking for a billion but it seems I underestimated his worth. I got an update, his fortune has multiplied out of sight because it's been invested since he ignored taking it four years ago. Try nine billion, Bella. I could live quite comfortably on that."

I couldn't get my head around a figure that enormous and wasn't surprised Edward had not rushed to accept responsibility for such an obscene amount.

"Okay, then it's really, really important to keep her safe, isn't it?" I replied.

" I'm going back to the plane. Say something to your kid and I'll listen in. Wait a moment for me to get there."

I pulled my red blouse back on and did it up. Angela stood tearfully beside me and I kissed her again.

"Don't worry, you are his key to freedom and untold wealth, he will look after you. I'll be back soon, Baby. Just stay strong. Be safe. I love you and so does Daddy."

I followed James and got into the plane and waved to Angie until she was too far away to see any more.

"What do you want me to tell Edward? If I tell him she's alive and I've seen her with my own eyes, he'll have the money ready a lot sooner. Can I tell him?"

"Bella, honey, you are my alibi. Edward will not know anything yet. Victoria is calling his attorney just to alert him to hold on to some funds, but she is not telling Edward anything just yet either. We need to get all our ducks lined up in a row.

For now all you say to him is how happy you are with me and what a fucking pig he was to leave you for Vicky in the first place. I want him nice and distraught. I want him to think getting Angela back is the most amazing thing on the planet."

"It will be, James. You know how much we both love her. I'd like to stay around and help her learn how to live back amongst people. It'd be really nice if you let that happen."

"Don't sweat it. You can't think I'm taking you with me? I'd rather take Vicky if I had to take someone, which I don't, and won't be."

I put my hand inside my pocket and hoped my cell phone had retained enough power to tape that admission on the voice activated recording device incorporated in the phone. All it needed was a charged battery to work, not a signal.

I prayed it had worked because I wanted to let Victoria hear what he had said. There'd been no coverage on the island, of course, but I'd turned it off and saved the battery, I hoped. It had turned on okay a few minutes before James landed.

I timed the flight and hoped it would be helpful to Edward and I looked for any points of reference to tell him but all there was in every direction was sea. Miles and miles of ocean.

The car ride home was rough and I feared losing my breakfast but we got to the wooden house before I had to throw up, so at least I got to do it in a bathroom.

I felt better immediately, so it was morning sickness, and not nerves. Those were still tap dancing in my belly.

"Make some tea or something. I never picked you for a lousy traveller. I thought you went all places when the kid lived with you. That must have been nice for your fellow passengers. You barfing all the way."

I'd never been airsick in my life.

I sipped the hot sweet tea and breathed in deeply, trying to work out how to communicate with Edward. I was probably only getting one shot at it, so it had to be good. A code or something.

I used the bathroom as the tea seemed to go straight through me and I smiled at the new symptom of pregnancy.

"Come on, what the fuck is the delay?" James yelled as I washed my hands and tidied my hair.

There was a fair crowd already gathered in the hospital grounds and of course we encountered Rose right off the bat.

"Hey Bella, good choice. Good on you for leaving a gorgeous, handsome, sexy as fuck guy and taking up with this loser instead. It's so kind of you to do that. Kind of like a really over the top pity date, right?" she stated, handing me a coffee.

I shook my hand at her and stepped back.

"Allergic to coffee? How strange, so am I. Let me tip this out before we both vomit. So, you and James. How sweet. I bet it was the upgrade in bed that lured you back to him. Come on, we are all adults here. I bet James knows how you bragged about what a wild man he was in the sack."

"Yeah, sure," I agreed, completely confused.

"Poor old Edward. What a dud, right? I remember back in High School when he and I hooked up..let's just say Emmett showed me what a real man could do in bed."

I glared at her. Why the lies? She had never hooked up with Edward.

I was relieved that James was impatient and sick of her inane chatter and pulled me away.

"Okay, there's Cullen. Go spin your line to him and remember, Bells, I'm listening to every word."

Edward was just getting out of his car so I hurried over and opened the passenger door, sitting myself inside.

Edward looked at me, and sat back in the driver's seat himself.

His windows were tinted so James may be able to hear us but he couldn't see us clearly.

I unbuttoned my blouse and pointed to the small black microphone and held a finger in front of my mouth, indicating he wasn't to speak yet..

Edward frowned.

I pulled at his shirt and exposed his tattoo and traced my fingers on the words.

_Forever My Love. Bella & Edward._

Then I pointed again at the microphone.

"Edward, I just wanted to make sure you were doing okay. I'm sorry that I had to leave but I love James," I said, screwing up my face and holding one hand behind my head mimicking hanging myself.

"These things happen," he replied, raising his eyebrows and mouthing the words "_what the fuck_?"

I took the cell phone from my pocket and mouthed back "_listen later_" and he nodded.

"I need to get a few clothes and things. Like my photos, things like that. Could you go home and fetch them for me?"

"Sure, no problem," he replied. "I was shocked to find out you were in love with James, to be honest."

"Yeah, I guess I just never got over him," I answered, pointing a finger down my throat.

He smiled, and stroked the side of my face.

"So, it's true love then, is it Bella?"

"It's true love," I answered stroking his cheek.

"We should go get your stuff. Can James live without you for half an hour?"

"Of course he can. And we will be right back. You understand we can never be together again, right?"

"Bella, maybe this all happened for the best. I've done a lot of thinking this past week, and now I can see we rushed back into something neither of us were ready for. To be honest, I'm enjoying being free again already. I've never done the whole meaningless random sex with strangers thing and it's working for me. No ties, no promises."

I wasn't sure whether to kiss him or slap him as he smirked and raised his eyebrows . Oh he was enjoying this little charade way too much.

"One day you'll meet a nice girl and want to settle down," I replied.

"Nuh, I don't think so. I'm liking my manwhore days."

"I've only been gone a week," I growled, and it was no act. I knew he was only joking but he was winding me up and I didn't want to accidentally blurt out anything true and real.

The minute we got inside the cottage he started removing my clothing and his own and he had me naked except for the battery pack taped under my chest. He turned me around, checking to see if he could remove it then put it back on but the duct tape was circled around my body several times.

Fortunately that left my breasts clear and accessible as he started sucking my nipple and rolling the other between his fingers.

"I can't find anything in the cupboard, help me look," I stated as he backed me against the wall and entered inside me.

"I'm sorry, I guess I lost my temper and tossed things around everywhere," he replied, thrusting as he gripped my buttocks in his hands. "Stop talking to me, I don't like you any more. I'm going to wait in the car." He reached out with one foot and kicked the door closed.

His lips said otherwise as he kissed down my throat and bit on my earlobe. I just hoped the microphone wasn't picking up the heavy breathing.

"Bad tempered bastard, he could help me look. I'm so sick of men, they all suck," I exclaimed under my breath. He took the hint and lowered his head, sucking the other nipple this time.

I could feel my body tensing, wanting to release but had no idea how to do it silently.

Edward reached for his iPhone in the dock on the table.

"I may as well listen to some My Chemical Romance," I managed to say, and he scrolled through and hit the play button.

The loud shrieking music must have forced James to remove his earphone, surely and I bit Edward's shoulder as he took me over the edge. He waited for me to regain control before thrusting harder and he caught my lips with his and kissed me hard as he shuddered and filled me.

We'd had better sex but never quite as raw and wild, and we'd managed to be silent. That was a first.

For minutes we stood there, embracing, our bodies loathe to part again.

When I finally pulled back, Edward started redressing and I went to the bathroom and cleaned myself up. Whore's bath, using body gel in warm water and talc afterwards to mask any telltale aroma of sex.

Then I redressed and flipped off the music.

"I've found what I wanted," I called once I was in the bedroom again. "I'll just pack them in a bag and be right out."

Edward sat on the bed, stroking my back as I grabbed a pen and my Diary and neatly printed the facts.

"Don't read until I've gone back with James" I wrote on a page, then turned so he couldn't read over my shoulder and wrote on the next page:

_Edward, I know you will find this hard to believe but Angela is alive. I've been with her all week. It is her. DNA tests faked by Vic in morgue. _

_James and Vic have her on an island. We flew out to sea from a small airfield five miles from Sea Tac. It is called Dromaide Private Airfield._

_Small charter plane, 4 seater._

_Twenty eight minutes out to sea._

_Island is tree covered but has clearing in the middle, his plane lands there._

_No other land in sight or between mainland and it._

_Small house, grey roof, we live in basement. Have monitor to see visitors arrive._

_James leaves us there alone during week._

_Angie misses and loves you._

_She's beautiful and has been fed and dressed ok._

_Taller than me!_

_She's alive, Edward._

_Vic is going to ask for ransom, agree but only pay when they hand her over, I beg of you or James will kill her. They have killed before._

_Girl named Marie, got a million for her corpse._

_Maybe let Vic hear what's taped on my cellphone if you think it'll help manipulate her._

_Just pay and get our girl home safe. _

_PLEASE._

_Don't think James plans to give me back alive but Angie is the important one._

_I love you. Forever my love._

_Bella xxxxx_

I slipped the hair from my locket and placed it in the Diary then I showed him only the first page and closed the book, replacing it on the shelf. I deliberately didn't tell him I was pregnant because he had to put the child we already had ahead of a six week embryo.

We both looked up at the sound of James' car and Edward bolted outside and sat in his own car, drumming his fingers impatiently on the roof, before my captor got his vehicle around the back of the house.

I waited a moment. Edward called out impatiently.

"Come on, I do have a life without you, you know. Hurry it up. Oh, James. How wonderful to see you," he said sarcastically. "You can have your woman back, she's driving me nuts. Hope you have better luck with her than I did. She can be a cold hearted bitch and I already have one bitch to look after."

"Oh, you mean the dog," James replied. "Good one."

I walked outside.

"Seems your ride is here. Have a great life, you two. May I just say you deserve one another," Edward snarled.

I wiped my eye, as if wiping a tear and discovered it was actually damp there. I didn't want to leave but I had to play the game and save Angela.

"Goodbye Edward," I said, getting into James' car. He leaned in and tried to kiss me and I managed to turn my face away and take it on the cheek. He waved at Edward.

"Better get the wife back to my parents place. We are spending some time with them."

"Great," Edward growled and off we went.

"I never said you could leave the carnival with him," James growled.

"I didn't see any problem with it. Edward would never believe I'd leave these photos behind. I've never been parted from them before. And I needed warm coats for Angela and I. It's cold at night down in the dungeon."

"Yeah well, no more tricks. What was the music in aid of? You nearly broke my eardrum."

"Oh God, sorry, I just wasn't thinking. I was getting upset, being in the cottage again. I had to get a hold on my emotions or he'd have suspected something if I went out to his car crying."

"We are going back tonight. I don't trust you. You didn't write on the mirror with lipstick or anything stupid like that, did you?"

"Of course not," I replied honestly, gazing at him to he would see that I was telling the truth. No lipstick had been involved. Just an update in a Diary. Nothing bad at all.


	5. Chapter 5

I Was Broken

Chapter 12

EPOV

Victoria sounded nervous but she answered me.

"I want to know one thing. Would you do a deal with just me or don't you trust me now? I know he thinks you will just pay up but I'm worried we may have covered our tracks too carefully and you won't believe us. Nobody hands over billions for something they think is an impossibility. And I'm scared he isn't really going to take me with him."

"Victoria, calm down and speak English. Who is 'he' and why would I hand over billions, presuming I could get my hands on a ridiculous amount like that?"

"Oh God, he's here."

The connection closed and I scratched my head.

This was serious if she and presumably James were thinking they could get me to hand over a large proportion of the money in exchange for Bella. That meant they had kidnapped her, surely. But I'd never heard of a kidnap victim volunteer to walk to her captors before.

"What's up?" Rose asked.

"I have no idea. I think I'm about to shaken down for a ransom to get Bella back."

"See I told you. That fucker forced her to leave with him."

"Rose, it's just confusing at the moment. I need to think. You should go home to your husband and kids. I'm fine, I promise."

"So, you will be at the hospital fundraiser tomorrow?"

"Sure. I said I would be and I will. I may be a little late. I have to see Jenks and put everything on hold until I find out what the fuck is going on. Once we hand over the funds, we can't get the money back so I have to freeze all funding, until somebody speaks up and Vic makes another call. I'm sure that fucker James is behind everything. Victoria couldn't organize a picnic let alone a kidnapping. See you tomorrow."

My dreams were strange. I was in the forest alone and it was so dark I couldn't see more than a foot in front of my face.

I knew Bella was there, just the way I always knew when she was close by.

But there was a third person as well and I couldn't get a good look at her.

Bella was trying to make me choose between them, saying I could only have one or the other and I kept answering I'd always choose her over any other living person.

She didn't like my answer and kept telling me to choose again.

I kept choosing her and she kept crying and begging me to choose the other girl.

It made no sense but all the same, I awoke in a sweat.

Jay agreed to fit me into his busy schedule and I took Alec with me and we talked over what little we could conclude from what was happening.

"If you proceed, then the funds will be gone and there would be no need for them to keep Bella anymore, so I say just give me the green light and ignore their little extortion. This pair are not dangerous, right? Just deluded that they are Bonnie and Clyde and have caught wind of your fortune? There's no chance Bella is part of this?" Alec asked.

I didn't hit him because he had never met her.

"No chance. Apart from anything else, she never got back to Jay to give him an amount for me to settle on her. She knows everything I have is hers. If she wanted money, she would have asked how much I had, then requested whatever portion she wanted.

No need for anything to be said or done apart from Jay filling in the amount on a form I had pre signed. There was no chance I'd block it because she wanted too much.

She didn't even ask me how much I had inherited, that's how little she cared. Most women would ask, even if they didn't want much of it to go to them. Nope, she is not involved."

"And this couple? James Hunt and Victoria, your soon to be ex wife. Dangerous or wannabees?"

"No clue. I am concerned that she went as far as marrying me and not taking contraception because I know she hates kids. That means she was trying to conceive solely to use the child as a means to an end. My son and heir comes to mind. That begs the question, were they simply going to then wait it out for fifty more years until I died of natural causes, because that sounds way too much time. They are my age. What's to say they'd outlive me or that they'd get more than a few brief years after I died?

Therefore, if they wanted my child as an heir, we have to consider I was fated to meet my end prematurely. This trust would not ever be inherited by any wife I happened to be married to, right? Not without issue from the marriage?"

"That's right. It was left to you specifically and of no benefit to your spouse except whatever you choose to give her. A theoretical widow would never gain control. You father already had that covered. If you died without accepting the money or without leaving an heir, it went to his nominated charities. He obviously expected you to make your own arrangements if you wanted your wife to have any part of it while you were alive.

She could never inherit herself."

"Then let's assume this pair are more dangerous than they appear. I don't want one more penny of the money allocated until I find out exactly what they want and what the consequences will be if I pay or don't pay. She's not pregnant, at least, not to me. If she tried passing of his kid as mine, a dozen paternity tests done by pathologists of my choice would catch them out. They may have control of one testing facility but no others.

Jay, I want to know every place Victoria has ever been employed. And James as well. That might shine some light on what they are up to."

"Already done. I checked from when they graduated to the present day. He worked for Volturi Enterprises, so that's how he found out about the Trust. She worked at the morgue and at the Coroner's Office, if either are relevant."

Alec and I left and he asked me if I wanted to go have a drink somewhere.

"Another time. I realize you have to sit around waiting for my decision and subsequent instructions but maybe just make sure the money is available, if we do have to pay up fast. I know James has said he will be at this benefit so I'm heading over to the hospital to give him the opportunity to speak to me."

When I arrived, the carpark was almost full and I took a chance and parked illegally in a handicapped zone just to not have to find a place miles away.

I surveyed the other cars and saw two in the distance that could possibly be James' car , right make, model and colour.

Before I could walk to them to check, Bella appeared from nowhere and got into my front passenger seat.

To say I was confused is an understatement.

If she was a kidnap victim, there had not been sufficient time for Stockholm syndrome to manifest itself so either she had escaped or they were taking one Hell of a risk. What was to prevent me just leaving with her?

Before I could even speak, she ripped her blouse open and showed me she was wired for sound. What the fuck?

Was she being sent to negotiate her own ransom? I'd just head straight for Sea Tac and get her the fuck out of the country. England was nice this time of year.

Then I realized we were meant to play roles here and pretend whatever scenario she started was the truth.

She traced her finger on my tattoo and immediately told me most of what I needed to know with that one simple act.

She loved me.

Whatever words she spoke were merely pointers about what I was meant to reply so I played along. I got into it and decided to have some fun. She knew me better than any other person on the planet so she knew what I was saying was just a charade.

If there was one thing we had both learned by being apart, it was that we could each have slept with a million other people and never felt any connection like the one we shared and she knew I would never, ever waste my time having meaningless sex with hook ups. But I liked the fire that lit up in her eyes when I pretended that was my new hobby.

I saw her hand itch to slap my face and I smirked at her.

I could feel the sexual tension mounting and much as I needed to find a way for us to speak, unheard, I needed to confirm our connection first.

Bella had made her allowed mistake by ever letting James touch her, married or not, and she would never let me inside her if she didn't want and love me as much as I loved her.

It was a shortcut to prove we were unbroken.

I didn't imagine James and Vic would let her out of their sight for long so everything had to be fast and meaningful.

The duct tape was a problem, whoever put it around her waist to hold the cigarette packet sized battery unit would know if it had been unwound so we found ways around letting it's presence hamper us.

The moment I entered her the world realigned.

We managed to blather some absurd words to hide our actions and I played the music she requested and blessed her shocking taste in screamo for once.

Gerard Way screamed while we made love.

It was hardly a romantic soundtrack but I don't think we heard a word anyway, all I could absorb was the love emanating from her body as I took her over the edge then followed a few minutes later myself. I would have much preferred us to peak together but there was no way that could happen silently, as needed.

We hung on tightly together, clasped in an embrace that spoke volumes.

She wanted to come home but she couldn't. Not yet.

I forced myself to let her go so we could find a way to communicate before the bodyguards arrived.

After she washed and dressed, she sat on the bed and hid what she was writing in her Diary from my eyes, and I waited as she clearly needed me to. I stroked her back, just wanting to feel the buzz for as long as possible as she frowned and bit her lip and concentrated like what she was writing would be as important as any Declaration Of Independence.

Then she showed me the cover page that requested I read her words later.

We both heard the sound of a car engine so I ran outside and sat in my car, adopting a role of impatience and boredom.

Even so, it took every ounce of self restraint not to jump from my car and pull that douche out of his through the window and smack him unconscious. I had to sit there watching my Bella try not to cry as he attempted to kiss her and I silently applauded when she turned her head so he only got to kiss her cheek. That was quite bad enough and one day soon I would smack him for that, possibly with a sledge hammer.

Once they left I played the recorded message on Bella's phone and shock waves hit my spine and surged through my body.

I let it run its course, there wasn't a lot on it but the first words were impossible. The voice was one coming from the grave.

"Do you have to go? What if he doesn't bring you back? What if he leaves me here alone forever?"

I knew without any doubt that the girl speaking was Angela, no matter how impossible it might be.

I couldn't concentrate on the rest of the recording until I replayed it a dozen times, just that one line.

The other stand out line was spoken by Bella:

"Edward is not an idiot. He won't pay you a penny until he knows Angela is alive and safe, I can promise you that. Don't hurt her, James. I know you don't care about her as a person but remember this. She's worth what, ten million dollars?"

The rest was just words.

I tore inside and grabbed the Diary and read confirmation of what I already knew as I wound the auburn hair around my right hand ring finger.

To be honest, in that moment I just wanted to track down James and Victoria and rip them apart and burn them before the life even eked out of their bodies.

I threw the book and phone down and paced the floor, trying to regain control.

Four years.

They'd stolen four years of our lives and we would never get them back.

They had taken our daughter and faked her death.

Well, once I had her back, nobody would need to fake their deaths because I would take care of that little detail myself. No faking necessary.

I grabbed my phone.

"Alec, I want a reporter in every major newspaper given a statement that Edward Cullen has accepted a massive inheritance and has taken the money in cash, to distribute himself to worthy causes. I need two people to think they are getting their pound of flesh. Tell all the relevant details; where it came from, how much it is, what we did already re funding Bella and Angela's charities, and make sure everyone knows I have over eight billion dollars on my person."

"You can't do that. Every criminal alive will come looking for you. Eight billion dollars would take up several suitcases."

"I have no intention of touching one penny, I just need everyone to believe I've done it."

I opened my safe and grabbed a stack of cash.

Then I jumped it my car and headed for the little private airfield.

A few hundred dollars in the right hands and I knew James had flown out just ahead of my arrival and got the details of the plane. He owned it himself and stored it here in the hangers when not using it. He'd bought the plane secondhand five years ago, from a flight instructor, and earned his wings.

For the last four years, he'd flown somewhere relatively close at least once a week, with or without a woman who had to be Victoria, only lately, like today, he had a different female companion sometimes.

His fuel was charged to an account, and he used the same amount consistently and refuelled before every flight.

"I need to hire a plane and a pilot. Now."

Money talks and it also gets you whatever you ask for.

It did take time to locate the island and the grey roof, but now I knew exactly where my wife and daughter were. I could see James' plane and made a snap decision.

"Okay, fly us further out to sea so he can leave without seeing us."

Once he flew back to the airport, I ordered the pilot to land on the narrow strip of clearing.

" I'll be back with two extra passengers."

There was no way I was fucking about giving that pair of idiots time to panic and kill my girls.

Bella opened the door and I could see she wanted to run into my arms but instead, she pushed forward our daughter and I scooped Angela up and kissed her face a hundred times, laughing with joy.

"We need to leave, right now."

Bella sat next to the pilot so I could sit beside Angie, and just gaze at her and hold her hand. She looked scared, like a deer caught in the headlights and was panicky but I started humming her lullaby and she relaxed and leaned her head on my shoulder.

"I finished the song. The one we were writing as a surprise for Mom on your wedding anniversary," she whispered. "I've played it for her, so she knows. It won't be a secret now."

"There's no room for secrets. Angela, I'm so sorry we believed the lie. We looked and looked then Charlie thought he saw your body in the morgue and we just gave up and thought it was too late. I will never forgive myself for not going in and facing up to identifying you myself. They could never have fooled me. I would have known, and never rested until we found you."

"Where are we going now? Home to the cottage?" she asked hopefully.

"Soon, Angie. I have some loose ends to tie up first and you can't be any place they'd be able to find you if anything went wrong. I'm going to take you to stay with Grandma and Grandpa. Just for a day or two, then I promise to take you home."

My parents had built a house in the forest after Angela disappeared and thanks to Mom's paranoia, it had metal shutters that could be activated to roll down and cover every big glass wall, and window, making it an impenetrable fortress.

Carlisle had gone along with whatever Esme needed to make her feel safe, and I finally appreciated her hysterical overreaction.

I made sure neither the pilot nor the man in charge of the airfield would rat me out by handing them each ten grand and the promise of more to come.

James had clearly seen no reason to keep them sweet with bribes and they were immediately Team Edward as their eyes lit up at the unexpected bounty.

" I've been looking for a business to invest some cash in, this could be quite a nice little operation with a million or two injection of funds. New planes, fancy reception area in a nice big new building. More professionals to give lessons. Could give the larger operations some competition. You'd both take home a much larger paycheck for the rest of your lives."

I think at that point either or both would have agreed to marry me, they were that enamored.

"I just need a key to the front gate and another to the hanger that James Hunt uses and then I need for you to tell Mr Hunt tomorrow when he arrives, that yes, I came and took his two companions off the island. But not a word about it until then."

The drive back was surreal and unnoticed, under the cover of darkness.

Of course there was the risk my parents would have heart attacks at the sight of my late daughter walking in their front door, but it was a chance I'd have to take.

I unlocked their security door and hit the intercom.

"Dad? I've brought some visitors for you. They need a roof over their heads for a few days, and also I need for nobody at all to know they are here."

The door opened and Carlisle stood there, struck dumb at Angela standing between us.

I pushed us all inside and reactivated the alarm system.

"How?" he finally managed to utter.

I steered him to the couch and called Esme ,who in turn ran to our daughter and locked her in her embrace. She didn't care how, or why, or what the explanation was.

Bella made coffee and sandwiches and we sat and ate and talked into the night. My parents couldn't take their eyes off Angie, and I had trouble to myself, as Bella curled upon my lap.

We slept in the guest room upstairs that was a replica of my childhood bedroom, up on the third floor alone, with my original double bed and black couch.

Angela insisted that couch was a lot more comfortable than the bed she'd had on the island and she wanted to stay in the same room we did. Once she was asleep, Bella told me all the details I didn't yet know. About Marie in detail, about the plan for Victoria to have my child and use him to get their hands on the money, but the news they were going to kill him once he inherited steeled my resolve to carry through what I needed to do.

They had killed at least once, but had been willing to kill Bella, and me, and a baby that fortunately had never been conceived, and no doubt even kill Angela once I paid and had her back.

I couldn't keep her under lock and key for the rest of her life.

With our daughter in the same bedroom, we were restricted to merely cuddling throughout the night, and Bella put my hand on her belly and nodded.

"Really? We did it? Bella, that's amazing."

I kissed her belly and thanked God for yet another miracle. We kissed and cuddled and checked on our sleeping daughter yet again, then I just lay there and revelled in having Bella in my arms.

Then when she fell asleep, my thoughts turned darker. This was not just a baby.

This was also another potential victim for them, as callous and money hungry as they were.

I forced myself to sleep. I needed to finish my plan, and that meant I would be heading straight back to Seattle in the morning.

Alone.

There was no way I ever wanted Bella and Angela to see the dark side of me.

But Victoria and James were the devil's companions and both were willing to kill and even handing them the money would never remove that danger. It would be no life for any of us, if the threat was still out there, hanging over our heads.

I had to make my girls safe in a way I had never managed before.

Permanently.

I set things in motion and texted Victoria.

X~x~X

I guess it was ironic that a man with nearly nine billion dollars was able to to do what he needed to do with a purchase that cost under thirty bucks.

I picked up three pairs of toddler sized waterwings and checked they were the self inflating variety, then went out of the chainstore via the self service counter and put a fifty dollar bill into the machine to pay. It spewed out my change and I gathered it up.

Fantastic value, I thought.

More expensive than the thirteen cent solution but I liked this method better.

Impersonal. Remote.

I drove to the airfield and unlocked the gate, and headed for the hanger.

James' plane was the only one is this building but I still checked the registration and markings to be very sure this was the right aircraft.

Then I opened the cover to the fuel tank and fed the waterwings inside one by one and kept a hold of their edge as they slid in the hole, then I hit the valve that inflated each one as it dropped inside the tank. One by one they fell, and took up space inside the fuel tank, which meant less fuel would fit in now.

The only danger was that James' might notice the cost of today's refill was a lot less than usual.

But then, he was hardly going to wait around to see how much was charged to his account.

Why would he?

I hit the road and headed home and arrived in time for lunch.

As expected, my cell phone was filled with missed calls and urgent voicemail messages.

It seemed James and Victoria had read the morning edition of at least one newspaper. I went outside and returned her call.

"Victoria? What's up?"

"What the fuck do you think you are doing? You give all that cash away and you will never see Bella and Angela ever again," James screamed down the phone. It seemed he had come out of hiding.

"I beg to differ. My wife and daughter are right here. I left the money in the basement in the house on the island. In the room you kept my daughter in for four years while you let Bella and I grieve and fall apart and think she was dead. You have to swear you will never come back and hurt my family again."

"You left nine billion dollars in the island house?"

"Sure. That's what you wanted, right?"  
"And are the cops there waiting?"

"James, all I want is for Bella and Angela to be safe. If the cops were there, where would they hide their planes? Nobody else is involved. This is between me and you. Take the money and get the fuck out of this country and our lives, and never come back.

I've left two keys. One for you and another for Victoria. Yours is taped to the door of your car. I changed the locks on the house on the island, so you need to take your key and go together. Your code is 907. I sent Vic her code in a text and told her where I hid her key outside the house. I also warned her not to tell either to you. It's her only guarantee you will take her with you. To the island, anyway. If you choose to leave her there and just fill her seat on your plane with money instead for the return flight, so be it. I don't care."

"If you are lying, Cullen, I'll come back and kill every member of your family, and every friend you ever spoke to."

_Really?_

_Because you will never know but I haven't bothered changing the locks or anything else. I just needed a way to make sure you both went there together._

_In a plane that will hold enough fuel for no more than fifteen minutes flight._

_Oops._

_I hope the sharks are hungry today._

"Edward, come and listen to your daughter play that piece you two wrote together on the piano," Mom called, and I went back inside.

Bella was right. Angela played like an angel.


	6. Chapter 6

**Yeah yeah, Stephenie Meyers wrote Twilght etc. The quote "Sometimes Kismet happens" is from New Moon page 126. I borrowed it. It's also where I got my sheepdog Kismet's name from.**

I Was Broken

Chapter 13

BPOV

Keeping a low profile was necessary, but my daughter wanted her dog back and I wanted to grant whatever wishes she asked. This time I would do it all right.

Edward had ordered me to stay within the house that his parents owned and Carlisle was our jailer this time. I knew they were just looking out for us both but we had less freedom now than on the island. At least there Angie and I had hiked and swum in the sea and collected shells on the beach.

It seemed terribly confining and claustrophobic just staying inside while Edward went off and did whatever he needed to do to regain control. He was such a typical man and he was furious at James and Victoria, that was obvious.

It was about more than just them stealing our child, too. He seemed ready to burst and I asked Carlisle if he owned any guns, and if so, would he please not give them to Edward.

I didn't want to become a single Mom raising two kids while he cooled his heels in prison for double murder.

That pair were not worth it.

James had no intention of taking Victoria away with him, that was clear, so at some point she would realize and they'd fall out.

Then who knows? With luck they'd choose pistols at dawn and shoot one another dead.

Of course, there was no guarantee and I knew Edward wanted something real to happen so we could all breathe again.

"What's up, Bella? Bored after your adventure?" Carlisle asked, walking in the room he used as a library, therefore the most likely room to find me.

"I want to go and fetch Bear from Jake's but Edward would take a whip to me if I did, in the mood he is in. I feel like a schoolkid, wanting to sneak out of school. Could you go get the dog for us? He left her in the boarding kennels at the vet surgery."

"I would love to but I'm in charge of making sure you don't sneak out. Edward knows you well enough to know you are not going to listen to what he orders you to do. You know he's only reacting this way because he could not bear to lose you, and he has Angela back now, so he will protect what is his until his dying day.

I tell you what, I wouldn't want to be any boy wanting to date your daughter. She is eighteen so it will arise, and soon. I imagine Edward will have the FBI do a background check on any suitors game enough to ask her out."

"Yeah and he'll have them both tagged with those traceable ankle devices they use for home detention prisoners so he can always know where she is. I know it's going to be hard but he has to give her some freedom or she isn't that much better off at home than on the island."

"You seem to have a soft spot in your heart for that place. I'd have thought you'd hate it."

"It's a beautiful island. The beaches are pristine and nobody else went there apart from Angie and me. I wish there was a way to find out if there really are pirates in that area."

"Pirates? Like Long John Silver?" he asked, looking at me like I'd lost my marbles.

"No, the modern variety that steal boats and cast the owners into the ocean. I know they exist but I always thought it would be way out in the middle of the sea, not that close to the mainland."

"We could check the internet," he suggested.

We sat together at the desk and he pulled up reports of piracy and it seemed James had lied. The only activity in the waters around the island were indeed, fishermen, with a possible smattering of drug dealers, as one boat had once been seized and searched and found to be collecting drugs from some place they'd been dropped out at sea.

That little enterprise had been cleaned up but I guess maybe there could theoretically others, as yet undetected.

But it was not an area full of dangerous people as James had pretended. We could have asked for help.

Angie could have been rescued and come home a long time ago.

"You can't think like that, it will drive you crazy. And if she ever thinks she should have tried to escape and didn't, it could hamper her progress. She's going to need help from a lot of people but you and Edward have to accept she did as she believed you would want her to do. Obey the man and woman with the guns and not get herself killed. She succeeded. Never let her feel like she could have done more."

"I suppose had James caught her trying to escape, he would have killed her anyway. The promise of a ransom never kept the other girl safe. Marie, the one Victoria killed."

"I found the site her parents put up in her memory. Do you want to see it?" he asked.

Looking at the photos of this girl who had touched our lives despite us never meeting her was strange. Her parents had loaded up photos of her from the day she was born until the day she disappeared as a fifteen year old student.

Her parents had been unlucky enough to win a little over a million dollars in the lottery and their faces were published in a newspaper and of course, James had noticed and come up with a plan.

Before they had a chance to use the money to change their lives, he changed their lives irreparably for them himself.

They hadn't called the police in at first, believing his threats and it was so sad that Vicky had lost her temper and killed Marie while James was out collecting the ransom.

They'd dumped her body and given the parents the location so she was found immediately, and the coroner concluded she must have died around the time the money was changing hands.

Of course nobody knew who took her and the only clue had been that she met a boy on the internet and had gone to meet him. She hadn't mentioned the Lottery win to anyone, including him as her emails showed, but of course James already knew and he had played her.

He offered her love and excitement and adventure and had said he was wealthy so her financial situation was irrelevant. No doubt that comforted her and proved he knew nothing about the windfall.

She'd trusted him, and off she had gone, straight into his arms just as Angela had done when her turn came.

His emails were so romantic, in a way that emails from boys Marie's own age would never be.

She'd sent him a photo and he'd been clever enough to ask for a 'nice' photo, not a naked one. He'd deplored the morals of boys today and explained how he wanted loyalty and true love and a picket fence yet his 'wife' would be free to choose whatever she wanted. To stay home and raise their pigeon pair of children herself, or put them in a creche and have a fulfilling career.

Marie had said she thought mothers should stay home until their children started school, and he had agreed. He felt that way too, exactly.

She wanted to live on a hobby farm with two cows, two goats, two sheep; imagine that, that was also his dream!

She always wanted a dog; a miniature poodle, preferably black, and planned to name it Leo but her Mom was allergic.

He had such a dog and it was named Leonardo. How amazing.

Whatever she wanted, her wishes coincided with what he wanted to give her.

She hated flying; so did he.

She wanted to cruise the Rhine on her honeymoon; he'd already been on that cruise and promised her he would love it so much more next time because he would have her at his side.

She liked tall men with black hair, cut short and neat.

Ta dah! His photo showed a young man sure to appeal to her but it wasn't James. I'd expected a photoshopped image but it was just a picture he'd found and snagged off someone's Facebook, the police later discovered.

A French boy, in no way connected.

I wondered how James had talked her into believing he was 'Jason's' older brother? The only eyewitness to notice anything had said a girl who looked like Marie had met a man walking a small black poodle and gone off with him after a short conversation.

I could imagine that.

"My brother is at home, getting prettied up, so as I often walk Leo for him, I thought I'd show you the way . He's making his room all nice for you. Candles, rose petals. That Jason, such a romantic. Here, hold the dog and jump in my car, the house is just down the road. We'll be there in an instant. Oh, this is my girlfriend."

Of course seeing Vicky in the front passenger seat would have reassured Marie that all was above board. Like a woman would be involved in anything bad. So she went to her doom holding her 'boyfriends' little dog on her lap and was never seen alive again.

I turned at the sound of a cry and faced Angela who was looking at the screen over my shoulder.

"That's Brady, in that photo. I met him in a chatroom, and went to meet him that day but James said he was in detention at his school and he was his brother and had come to take me to the school gates to wait. I thought it was safe, going to a school. And anyway, his wife was waiting in the car. Victoria. They told me she was having a baby. I just didn't think they were dangerous."

I took her into my arms.

"I didn't know any of this. There were no emails or photos on your laptop."

"I deleted them. Brady said it would be better if you and Dad thought we met in person because meeting guys on the internet can sound a bit stupid. But we chatted for weeks before he asked me to meet him. He seemed so nice. He wasn't part of their gang, was he?"

Carlisle explained to her how 'Brady' didn't exist, and Angie burst into tears.

"I thought at first he'd find out what his brother had done and come and save me."

No, there'd been nobody even looking for her once that body was identified.

X~x~X

EPOV

"Edward! It was just on the news. James' plane went down in the ocean. He and Victoria are dead," Bella exclaimed white faced.

"What? How could that happen? He'd been flying for years. Thank God it was her with him and not you," I replied, putting my arm around her.

She would never fail to surprise me. She had to hate them both to the bottom of her soul yet she was upset they were dead.

"Did they recover the bodies?" I asked. Okay, I just wanted to hear they had both survived the crash and been nibbled on by angry sharks until they bled out.

"There were some fishing vessels in the vicinity and several fishermen saw the plane go down. They said it hit really hard and just disintegrated on impact but the bodies were thrown clear. They were both dead already. The men in the closest boat brought them into the mainland."

"Hell. What a thing to happen," I replied, shaking my head. Damn, no snacks for the sharks.

My cell rang.

"Edward Cullen."

"Oh. I see. Yes, that's fine. What time? I can do that. No, as far as I am aware, neither had families. Yes, it is sad. I'll be there. Goodbye."

"Who was that?" Bella asked.

"It was the Coroner's Office. Ironically they need me to go identify the remains of the woman who was my soon to be ex-wife. They said her body is intact , just some bruises. Broken neck from the impact."

"So, why wouldn't they want me to identify James? I was his pretend wife once."

"Pretend being the important word. They would have no idea about you and him. Victoria is his only legal ex-spouse, and she can't identify him."

"But I want to. I need to," Bella said earnestly.

"You need to see he is dead," I stated.

"I do. He said he would come back and kill Angela again. For real this time. I need to see with my own eyes that he can't do that. Ever."

"Does Angie know?" I asked.

"She clapped her hands and said "Yay" then realized your parents and I were in the room too and immediately stopped and went silent. I think it's only fair that she hates them and is glad they are dead. I'm never going to waste my tears on them. If it hadn't happened, they would have probably found a way to kill us all eventually. I bet James' is furious right now that he didn't live long enough to collect the ransom. You were going to still give him the money, right? To make sure he stayed away."

"Yes, of course I was."

"Why did it say in the papers you took the cash out?" she asked, her eyes narrowing.

"I had the crazy idea it might lure James out after me so I could kill him with my bare hands.

I truly wanted to do that."

She leaned up and kissed my cheek.

"Then aren't you lucky that Fate intervened and killed them both first. Sometimes kismet happens. I wouldn't have wanted you to have to kill him. Or her."

"Doesn't matter how they died, they deserved their fate. Come on, let's go pay our last respects, so to speak."

I called the therapist Carlisle had already engaged for our daughter and she advised me it was up to Angela, whether she wanted to see the bodies.

She thought for a few minutes then shook her head.

"Then you will be okay to stay here with Grandpa and Grandma. Your Mom and I won't be long."

"Okay, hurry back."

I wanted to but first I needed to spend time making sure this really was Victoria's body and not some doppelganger. I requested to be left alone and immediately moved the hospital gown covering her and located every mole and childhood scar and birthmark I'd seen on her. There was blood and skin beneath her fingernails, and her hands had been bagged. Maybe she had not died immediately but had struggled to get out of the wreckage and broken her nails? I shuddered at the thought, before stating, yes, this was the body of Victoria Rhona Redding. There was no way in Hell she was being buried under the name of Cullen.

"The bruises on her throat. I'm not understanding how they happened. That's not a typical repercussion of a broken neck. More like someone throttled her."

"The eyewitnesses in the harbour said they appeared to be fighting."

"The plane went down in the harbour? That's, what five minutes from the airport."

"Yes, it probably wasn't a mechanical failure or a fuel issue, it appears the pilot and passenger were engaged in a physical struggle and he lost control of the plane."

I accompanied Bella into the adjoining room where James' body lay.

Bella approached him cautiously then when she got close, she poked him in his closed left eye and jumped back, as if expecting him to sit up and grab her.

"He's really dead?"

I took his wrist, completely unnecessarily and showed her where to hold to feel for a pulse that would never beat again.

"He's dead."

She bit her poor tortured lip and shocked me by slapping his face so hard he would have bruised black and blue had he had a working circulatory system. He already had bright red scratches down his cheeks and suddenly I realized what Vic had been scratching.

Honestly, they couldn't keep their fight for later? What was wrong with this pair? Couldn't even wait for the plane to ditch from lack of fuel, had to enter into fisticuffs over who got how much of the money, no doubt. It seemed half of nine billion dollars wasn't even enough for either of them.

I didn't even have the satisfaction of knowing I killed them.

Bella stood beside James, and her face was contorted with pain and anger.

"I hope you are in Hell. I hope you rot and I wish the sharks had eaten off your legs and arms before you died. I wish you had felt the pain you put us through."

The attendant never reacted, just stood there waiting.

"This is the body of James Nicholas Hunt," I declared, taking Bella's arm and leading her out to the car.

"I'm sorry. I just hated him so much," she cried.

"Bella, never apologize to me again for hating that monster in there on the slab. He deserves all your hate. I hate him too. But it's over. We need to forget he existed and spend all our energy on helping our daughter heal and grow and learn to socialize again. We have to look forward, not back. Okay?"

"Okay. But I reserve the right to spit on his grave. On both their graves."

"Done," I replied, starting the engine and heading back to my parents and our daughter.

When we got there, Esme cautioned us not to overreact, but the thing was, Jacob was here.

Talking to Angie.

He'd arrived with Bear, after Dad had called him and asked him to bring it here for him.

Bear lay stretched out on the couch, his head on Angie's lap. She was stroking him but her eyes were fixed on Jake's face as he spoke quietly to her. She smiled at something he said. He paused and smiled back and took her hand.

"Oh come on. No way, this is not happening," I growled. " He's old enough to be her father."

"Edward, he wasn't even eighteen when she was born. That's not a massive age difference. She is going to need people she can trust and he is one of them. Calm down and be nice. I'd trust him with her life. He's a great guy, he was just not meant to be with me. Anyway, there's one little factor you have forgotten. She is eighteen."

Fuck me. Eighteen and if she is anything like her mother, she will never let anything stand in the way of what she wants. I may as well spit into the wind. I guess if he helps her come back to us mentally, and plays by my rules, I can let them be friends.

She was looking at his hair, so long and glossy again, and I shuddered.

So like her mother. Thinks good hair makes a good man.

"Hi Mom, Dad. Jacob brought Bear here to me. He's been telling me all about working with injured native animals."

"Hi darling. Hello Jake, good to see you," Bella said, acting like this was all fine and dandy.

"Jacob," I acknowledged, not wanting to appear rude. Angie was happy, I was the one who had to suck it up.

Bella pulled me towards the kitchen and forced me to help her make coffee.

"Edward, if you make a fuss, she will dig her heels in and elope with him. Just relax. She has never been a girlfriend and if he becomes her first boyfriend, then we'll know she is in safe hands and he will protect her with his life. He has always loved her. If that changes into a different kind of love at some point, remember this. She will never be the same as other girls. She won't be able to see through their masks and pick out the douches from the decent guys. She's an open target for anyone unscrupulous.

You have always liked Jake, admit it. Just not the fact he liked me."

"But he's old. He's thirty three."

"And Carlisle is how much older than Esme?"

"Fifteen years," I muttered. "It's different with them."

"Why? Because they are your parents and not your vulnerable daughter who needs someone just like Jake to reintroduce her to the real world but have the patience to let her call the shots and find her own limits? She isn't ever going to trust a whole lot of people, no matter how many therapists she sees. She needs a man who is a friend first and puts her needs before his own. That could be Jacob."

"That had better be all he introduces her to," I growled.

"Edward, she was hoodwinked by James when she was fourteen. He was the so called boy she went to meet, in case you haven't worked that out. He befriended her on the Internet and she was completely taken in by him. He could have been a sexual predator.

If she is going to be attracted to older guys, think about that. At least we know and love Jacob. Anyone else his age we would be constantly worrying about what he saw in her, why he wanted to date an eighteen year old and not a woman his own age. Jake's always been really young in his thinking. He acts years younger than other guys his age.

You know what they say. If you love something, let it go. If you love her, then consider he might be the best man for her. We know he has the patience."

"I just wanted her back with us for a few years to make up for the years we missed," I grumbled.

"She can't turn back into a fourteen year old kid. She was ready to date when she left home that day to meet James. She's older now and even more ready. She told me on the island she really missed other people. Us most of all, of course, but also being around guys.

You can't stop a girl from growing up and wanting adult things. You liked that when it was me.

If she knows we approve of Jacob, we won't lose her. He can come to the cottage and visit. We can have some say in how often they are together and where he takes her. Better that than having her runoff with someone we don't know because her father is smothering her and treating her like a child.

And, you notice she hasn't even asked if the bodies were James and Victoria? I thought she'd be desperate to know. He distracted her."

I carried the tray of coffee into the sitting room and my parents joined us. I kept looking at Angela and forcing myself to see her as she is, and not the child she was.

Jacob looked kind of nervous and I took him aside when he helped me take the empty mugs and coffee pot back to the kitchen.

"She's a complex and complicated girl, but if Bella thinks you would be good for her, I can agree to you becoming Angela's **friend **if you take things really slow. She's been robbed of companionship for four years. If at any point she discovers she prefers guys her own age, then you need to step back. Meanwhile you may visit us at the cottage. We are going home tonight."

"Edward, honestly, I just want to be her friend. She needs someone to talk to who is not intimately involved. I'm not going to hurt her. I just want to help her find her feet again. Better me than some teenager who expects payment in kind for his attention.

Nothing is going to happen between us. Relax."

Honestly, he's thirty three and he still doesn't see that light in a female's eyes that says they are interested and want to explore when this could go?

I guess that explains how come he never noticed the lack of light in Bella's eyes when they were together.

Fuck me, one predator dies and another takes his place.

I knew that wasn't true and a gross overstatement but I wanted my obedient, childlike, fourteen year old back, the one that's eyes only lit up around me.

There was no way I'd be ready to let go, not for years.

I could see that Jake was sincere and had only her best interests at heart, but she was Bella's daughter.

That was the worry.


	7. Chapter 7

I Was Broken

Chapter 14

BPOV

"What's up, Angie?" I asked, finding her in the kitchen while everyone else was gathered in the backyard around the barbecue grill. She was sitting hunched over at the kitchen table.

"They all talk at once. Does Alice ever shut up? I'm not used to all this talking," she replied.

I guess there were a hundred ways being home was vastly different to being on the island and we'd discover them one by one.

"Did Victoria talk to you when she was there and James wasn't?" I asked. She'd never been the friendliest of women, I'd often wondered how she had ever managed to fake interest in Edward long enough for him to give in and respond.

"She used to say stuff. Lies. I didn't believe her," Angie replied.

"Well, she learnt from the master. James couldn't lie straight in bed," I agreed.

"She even told me you and Daddy got divorced and he married her."

Oh shit. I guess we hadn't even realized this was something she needed to hear from us. I gathered my thoughts and tried to think of a way to explain without making any of it sound like her fault. If she hadn't gone to meet 'Brady' then James would never have been able to take her, and Edward and I would never have parted.

But we were adults and we alone let things happen and get out of control. It was our reactions, not her actions, that led to those two ridiculous unions.

"Daddy and I had a very hard time after James took you away from us. We managed to cope and stay strong for one another while we were searching but once that poor girl's body was wrongly identified as you, then I lost my way and I didn't know how to let your father help me back. I couldn't stand him touching me and he tried and tried for a very long time, Angie, to help me. But after two years, he did leave and he did marry Victoria. I know that sounds like the worst possible thing but we had no idea she and James had anything to do with your disappearance.

She was there for Edward when nobody else was. It was all my fault. I pushed him away into her arms."

"Hey, I was the guilty one," Edward said, walking up behind me and placing his arms around my waist, resting his hands on my belly. It was his automatic way to be in touch with his coming child.

"Did you have an affair?" Angela asked him and I shut my eyes and wished I'd explained it better, in a way that stopped her asking for every painful detail.

"No, I did not. I never once cheated on your Mother."

I froze and he felt my body stiffen.

"Bella, you know I never slept with her until after she and I were married, right?"

"But I thought...James said..." I spluttered.

Edward turned me to face him and put his hands on my shoulders.

"I did not do anything more than kiss her a couple of times before the divorce. I slept in her bed sometimes but only in order to try and sleep. Never to cheat."

I was shocked.

"I never would have made a move on you while you were married if I had known that. I assumed you were fair game seeing she cheated with you while we were married," I confessed.

Edward smirked, then laughed out loud.

"Really? You only hit on me that day at the beach because you thought she deserved to be paid back for what you thought she had done? That's golden."

"It wasn't payback. I needed closure," I replied, trying to regain my dignity. Fuck, I had been the Other Woman . Even Victoria had behaved better than I had. Other than the whole stealing our daughter and killing her last kidnap victim part.

I felt myself blush from head to foot at the realization I had behaved somewhat like a tramp. I've never had any problem with single women sleeping with as many single men as they wish to, so long as those men are completely unattached and free themselves.

To me, that's not being a slut. Not even if they go with a hundred men.

A slut is someone who cheats with another woman's man.

Bella Swan had been a slut.

"Bella, you did what needed to be done to start the ball rolling and get us back together. After everything we had been through, you can't possibly think you did the wrong thing?" he stated.

"I just ... I would never have... I believe marriage is a sacred commitment and nobody has the right to come between a man and the woman he promised himself to. No matter what. Unless that relationship started in deceit, then it's doomed anyway so it doesn't really matter."

"But you knew I was married. You even thought you were mar..."

"You married someone else?" Angie choked out, jumping up from her chair.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

I have never regretted any action more than pushing Edward away but 'marrying' James had to come a close second.

I turned away from Edward and approached our daughter.

"You can't begin to understand how horrible it was for me. I had to watch Edward with her, and I was so lonely. James played me. He became my friend and took me out when I was a virtual recluse, and he offered me a future. I didn't go looking for it. I never chased him. He was just...there."

"You married James," Angela screamed, horrified.

"I did. I thought I did. I mean, it wasn't real but yes, I married James."

"You both married the people who took me away and kept me a prisoner," she said, shaking her head.

I stepped towards her and she flinched as my hand touched her arm.

"Don't. Not now."

Fuck, now I knew how Edward felt when I cringed at his touch.

"I can explain," I said, wondering how the heck I could explain. It sounded so weak and pathetic now. Marrying a man I hardly knew because Edward didn't want me to. It sounded like a schoolyard revenge, not an adult decision.

"Angela, neither of us had the slightest reason to suspect they were involved in your disappearance. They were playing roles, and we bought them. It's easy in hindsight to see exactly how they tricked us, but at the time, Victoria seemed like the only friend I had, and I needed someone. I knew almost immediately that I'd made a terrible mistake but I believed your Mom would never forgive me so I stayed in the marriage. Victoria and I had separate bedrooms before our first wedding anniversary."

"You slept with her for a whole year? While she was coming to the island to make me miserable, you were having sex with her? Did you love her?" she asked.

"Never. I wasn't that deluded," Edward answered.

"So you married a woman you didn't love."

"I made a mistake. People under the amount of stress and in the deep despair we were in make stupid decisions. I admit that. I sincerely hope you never have to feel as bereft as your Mom and I felt when we thought you were dead. There's nothing worse than thinking you have to outlive your own child. It was like drowning but not quite. Like we wanted to die but couldn't. If a person could just wish themselves dead, we both would be," Edward said gently.

"And that was my fault," Angela stated.

"No, it wasn't. There was nothing you could have done to save us. I'm sorry we let you down."

Angie stepped towards the window, hugging her arms around her own torso.

"The one thing that kept me going and stopped me jumping off that cliff on the island was imagining you and Mom at home together, looking after each other. Waiting for me to come back. I can't believe you got divorced."

Someone tapped on the front door and Edward went to open it.

He came back with Jacob.

"Hey Angie. How's it going?" Jake asked, walking up and taking one of her hands inside his own and covering it with his other hand.

"Did you know? Of course you did. Why didn't you tell me?" she asked him.

"That's not fair, Angela. It was our place to explain to you. We just wanted a few weeks to enjoy the miracle of having you back before telling you all the grisly details. Bella and I thought you had enough to cope with."

"You should have told me when we were on the island," our daughter said to me.

"It was over by then. We were back together. Angie, we never thought we'd ever see you again, and then there you were. My brain had no room for irrelevant details about meaningless mistakes we had made. I hope you can forgive us both and try and see things from our point of view. We thought we lost you. I think we were probably both a little insane, for a while. It's the only explanation I have."

She still looked unconvinced and Jake raised an eyebrow at Edward.

"Maybe this would be a good time for Angie and me to take off for a while. My Dad would love to see her."

"Go, if that's what you want," Edward replied, looking at his child. "Everyone will understand."

After they left, I burst into tears and Edward held me against his chest and let me cry it out at the expense of his new white shirt. He rubbed his hands on my back and kissed the top of my head repeatedly.

"She'll understand once she talks it out with Jacob. God, I never gave this a moment's thought. I just wanted us all back like we had been, before. I didn't want to think abou that terrible time we were all apart. It was the worst time of our lives," he cried.

Finally I seemed to run out of tears and I looked up at Edward.

"You cheated with me but never on me? I'm glad about that. I'm also glad I never realized it was just another of James' lies though."

"I never cheated with you, how could I? We have always been the couple. It did feel like cheating when I was with Vic, even though it was legally above board. It still felt immoral and just wrong. Angie will get that, one day. A piece of paper does not make a couple. Neither does it end a couple. We made mistakes. We need to fix this one even though we both know in our hearts we are still married to one another and always will be. I think we need to talk more with Angie and see what she thinks. I don't want to upset her further."

"I think maybe you are right. About a lot of things. Maybe we do need to buy a new house and move out of this one. We can afford to keep it, right? Not sell it to anyone?"

"Bella, like you requested, I have given away eight billion dollars and what we have left is in the millions. It's mostly invested but we can buy a new house and have a new beginning.

I'm realizing while we do have us back and our daughter back, trying to recreate our old life is not going to happen. We all need to start again.

Angie is a young adult and I accept that now."

The barbecue went on without it's special guest but Rose and Alice and Esme all understood.

"She's a different person now," Alice sighed. "That's sad but at least she came through fairly untraumatized. Unlike you two. Be kind to one another and yourselves. You two are different people as well. Stronger. Better. You survived the very worst thing. Give yourselves that much credit. If you'd taken the easy out, there never would have been a reason for James to keep her alive. No Edward, no inheritance. No ransom, no point. Not to an animal like James was."

Esme took us all inside for a healing cup of tea and chat and Edward went to talk to the menfolk.

Renee would arrive next week, I needed to regroup and get my strength back before that happened.

X~x~X

EPOV

"How did you kill them?" Emmett asked, taking another drink from his beer bottle. He said it just as one would ask how I had cut the grass so neatly. Like it was an everyday event, me killing people.

"Edward will never admit to it, and neither should he," Jazz interjected. "He took out the trash. He did what he had to do to keep his girls safe. Nothing needs to be spoken out loud."

"I didn't kill them. I tried to, maybe, but they managed to kill one another before anything I may have done came into play."

"Did you boobytrap the house on the island? Because if you did, you probably should go back and undo that. Just in case some poor bastard gets washed up on the shore after his yacht sinks, and blows himself up."

"I simply made sure they didn't have as much fuel as they thought but they had plenty left when they crashed. You can see it glistening on top of the water in the photos the Rescue Squad took of the scene," I replied.

"The old plastic bag in the fuel tank trick," Emmett said happily. "I knew my novel would come in handy one day."

"What novel? You never wrote more than three chapters," Jasper teased. Emmett had been writing the Great American Novel ever since High School.

"Okay, fine, but in those three chapters, I managed to write four different ways to kill someone in ways that would be really hard to prove. So what if the investigators find a plastic bag in the sea with the debris. Doesn't prove anything."

"Or three sets of self inflating water wings," I suggested.

"Oh good one. You see them washed up on the beach all the time. Kids forget them when they are packing up to go home after a day at the beach."

"Good outcome. Better you never get to brood and develop some ridiculous guilt complex about murdering two animals," Jasper added.

I accepted the beer Emmett was handing me and considered his.

"I guess I had to make a choice. Their deaths I could live with. Had they lived and come back to kill my wife and daughter, that I couldn't have ever accepted. I'd have blamed myself and hated my own weakness forever if that had occurred. James and Victoria already proved to me they didn't deserve to live. I know we all think nothing would ever provoke us to kill, but I found out that wasn't true, in my case. I'd kill to protect my girls."

"I'm going to admit this now," Emmett said. "I really thought both you and Bella would end up topping yourselves. Let's face it, you just went further and further downhill and into more agony as time went on. You remarrying, her remarrying. I gotta say, I wanted to kidnap the two of you and had I known there were deserted islands out there, I woulda put you both on one together. Made you face your shit and get back with each other."

"Bella only resisted taking that option because she honestly believes if you kill yourself, you go somewhere different, and she was more terrified about that then she was facing living here without Angela.

She was determined to endure the rest of her natural life here because she had faith her timely death was the only way to be reunited with our child."

"That's a lucky thing, as it turned out," Jasper stated. "I know you are both thrilled to have her home but it's got to be hard, still. She's kind of withdrawn, which is only to be expected. I hope she finds some friends soon and can fit back in with us all."

"She blossoms in the presence of Jacob," I admitted. "God knows I never would have chosen him for her, but the last few days he has kept her grounded and made things bearable for her. I'm hoping he can help her see why we did the things we did when she was gone. She just found out Bella and I divorced."

"Whoa, that's got to have thrown her for a loop. The perfect couple split and married to her kidnappers. Pretty unique situation, I can't imagine anyone else in her therapy group is going to come up with that scenario."

"No, Jazz, I imagine you are right. All those nights I lay in bed beside the woman who helped break me, and thought she saved me instead. I can't believe she took me in like that."

"They were good, for sure. I mean, I never liked James but I was willing to accept him for Bella's sake," Jazz answered. "I just wanted her to be happy and smile again. One way of looking at it is, he was such a douche it made her see what she was missing and go get you back."

"She was amazing. I couldn't believe it, that day at the beach. I thought for sure it was going to be a one off and she just needed to be with me one more time as desperately as I needed to be with her again. God I missed her. I could never survive another breakup. We stay until the end this time, no matter what life throws at us."

"So, are you hoping for a boy this time?" Emmett asked.

"I truly have no preference," I answered honestly. "I hoped for a girl, for obvious reasons, when we were making the baby but now...though come to think of it, in a way, another girl might make it a little easier, with Angie so determined to grow up and leave us again."

"It will be different this time. She'll still live here somewhere close and visit."

"I actually bought that new housing estate on the bluff overlooking La Push. There's enough house blocks for all of us to build and I'd love it if you guys would agree and let me pay for a new house for you. The girls can design them, and I have builders waiting, ready to begin. I'm hoping Carlisle and Esme will accept a beach house along side our new house so they live there some of the time, at least. I'm just not sure if Bella will want Renee living in the estate as well. It's always been tense when that woman has come to stay with us on her brief, infrequent visits. I never understood how come she and Bella never got on. Bella is the easiest person to live with, excepting after Angie's kidnapping."

"Women, hey. Rosie is determined this baby of ours will be a girl. I can't imagine her handing over the crown to anyone, even her own daughter."

"Rosie will always be the Queen. The baby will merely be the princess," I informed him. I love Rose. Sometimes I wonder where I'd be now if not for her and her support. We have never been even slightly similar to one another and have entirely different tastes in everything but she kept me sane when nobody else could have.

I can't help wishing she'd been willing and able to be here for me when Bella rejected me because with Rose, we would have had a line we would never cross. We were strictly friends, and nothing would have changed that. But she'd been too sunk in her own grief over Angie's 'death' to help me then.

Let's face it, I want to go back and eliminate those bad years and have a do-over and get everything right this time. Protect my daughter, never have Bella need distance from me.

Emmett was tossing down shots of Jack Daniels.

I could see he was getting a little too relaxed.

"Edward, if you could somehow stop James and Victoria before they went bad, would you? I mean, I always thought it would be interesting. To meet them before they took that Marie girl, and before Angie. If you could somehow see into their minds and know they were planning to do those things in the future. Could you have killed them then, before they even did anything wrong?"

"I think I could. I would have done anything to prevent Bella feeling the way she did. I never ever wanted to hurt her, yet I did. Time and time again. I never should have been sleeping with her in High School, I never should have touched her until she was at least safely on The Pill. I should have done things right. Married her first, after college. Looked after her and kept her safe. I let her down long before the Victoria fuckup. I look at Angie and imagine if she already had a baby. I'd want to kill the boy who did that to her while she is so young."

"You'd never have controlled Bella. She always knew exactly what she wanted. I bet she never cried a single tear about being a pregnant High School girl. I never saw her unhappy."

"She did love it," I admitted. "It was amazing. Knowing we had a little baby we made together, growing inside her. It's the same this time. It just feels like the reason we were put on Earth. To make these babies. I can't wait for the birth. I'm finding a midwife so she can deliver the baby at home."

"Bella wants that?" Jazz said in surprise.

I shrugged.

"I guess I haven't told her yet. I just can't trust that the baby will be safe anywhere else. People steal babies from hospitals, you know."

"Edward, I would suggest before you go down that path that will be littered like a minefield, that you investigate improving the security at Forks Maternity instead. I just cannot imagine Bella agreeing to a home birth. Will the new house be finished by then?"

"Ours will be. Mom and Dad's will, as well. Whether yours are depends when you get the plans drawn up and submitted. They could be done in time if you hurry."

"And you will feel safer up there?" Emmett asked.

"There's two access roads, both private, one on each side of the mountain. Cliff face behind us, cliff face in front. Nobody could climb up from the beach without us knowing. There will be alarms and sensors and cctv and every form of security you can imagine. It'll be a fortress. The roads will have gates opened with key cards and only we will have them."

"And you don't think this is a little bit of an overreaction?" Emm asked seriously.

"I had my child stolen from us for four years. No, I don't think I'm being paranoid. Shit happens. You have children, you owe it to them to protect them."

"Is Angela going to live in your house with you? She is itching to grow up."

"I'm having Mom and Dad's house built on the land to the left of our house and a house for Angela sandwiched between them. Even if she wants to live alone, she will be safe. This time."

I knew they thought I was a little crazy but having a child stolen tends to do that to you.

I also know they were thinking all the security devices in the world would never help if my child chose to walk out and meet some person somewhere of her own free will. That had already been proven.

All I could do was my best.

X~x~X

BPOV

"Nope, not happening," I replied. I stared at Edward and wondered where the line was. Was it normal in the circumstances, for him to react this way? Okay, I agreed to live in a house built on a shelf carved out of a cliff face, just so he could feel safer than he felt living here.

All the others had agreed; we would have friends and family as our neighbours and we would have a staircase built in a tunnel going down to the beach. No doubt it would have gates and doors and locks and cameras every two feet but whatever Edward needed, I would accept.

But I was not having a home birth.

"Just think about it. Read some information. It can be just as safe if not safer than a hospital delivery," he replied.

"So are you planning on building an ICU and an ER within our house so we have duplicates of every piece of equipment you have donated to Forks Hospital?" I asked.

"Of course not."

"I want to be where the equipment is. I want to know if there's an emergency that the baby will have the best care and the best chance of survival and that means hospital, to me."

"There's germs and viruses; you are forgetting hospitals are full of sick people. And we can't check the background of every patient and every spouse of the patients, and every visitor. Anybody could get inside. Flower delivery people have access for God's sake. They could be anyone."

"Edward, you can sleep in my room and be with the baby 24/7. You can restrict my visitors to an agreed list of people. You can even lock my door, but I am having this baby in the hospital. I thought you had paid to have all new security measures put in place?"

"All that means is, if someone steals the baby we'll have film footage of them doing it," he growled. "Burglars get around alarms and locks so why couldn't a kidnapper?"

"Then you are saying they could get into our house, no matter what you do?" I pointed out.

He sank down and put his head in his hands.

Carlisle agreed finally, that Edward needed to talk to a professional. He was clearly suffering some form of post traumatic stress syndrome.

I was sure of it but I was equally sure he would be okay.

All he needed was to feel in control again and everything would be perfect.

X~x~X

Once Edward started therapy, things looked up but the one issue that now stood out was the sense of distance that had come between Angela and myself. I was not allowing it to continue and if my spoken words were insufficient, then maybe my written words would have more effect.

I don't know the advisability of what I did but I had to make her understand the dark places we had been that led to those marriages so I let Angela read my Diary. It had been a ritual from before she was born, to update my Diary every night before I went to sleep and I clung to that ritual when she went missing.

Even in the blackest of days, there was no way I could go to sleep without writing a few lines at least, even if it was just a record of how horrendous that day had been.

I always wrote something about Edward. Usually positive but occasionally I mentioned something that he'd done to annoy me, and in the Black Pit Of Despair I'd always estimated how badly he felt compared to how I did.

Sometimes his pain outhurt my own and I'd admit that in the words I scrawled onto the page.

I wrote about my many many rejections of him, of the many many times he kept coming back for more pain just because he loved me and was so determined to save me, and the eventual inevitable separation and divorce.

I read some of the pages out loud to her, and she read some silently herself. She came to me again and again, asking for more clarification if my words had been too brief and in my own personal type of 'shorthand', usually employed for words that hurt too much to write in full.

It was all there for her perusal.

The death of Edward and Bella.

Reading it just tore at my heart, and I could see it was affecting her that way as well.

When she finished, she went back and reread a few entries, then she came to me and hugged me close.

"I understand."

"Can you forgive us?" I questioned.

"There's nothing to forgive. I never imagined you could love somebody too much but I believe both you and Dad did do that. He loved you too much to watch you suffer any longer and you loved him too much to force him to stay. You chose to let him go to her. You knew."

"Of course I knew. I didn't know who but I knew he was talking to somebody who was willing to listen to him and let him express his pain out loud.

I thought whoever she was, she was a better choice for him than I was. I truly never expected to ever feel any better so there was no point asking him to stay and die with me. I couldn't bear to see Edward die. He was as bad as I was but then he started to find a way to cope, and I couldn't. I had to let him go. It was both the easiest and hardest thing I ever did.

I wanted her to be enough for him and it was a long time before I realized he didn't love her."

"Then you took him back off her."

"I prefer to think of it as just bringing him home where he belonged."

"Then you lied to him so he would let you come to me."

"Angie, I had to try and get you home as well. We'd never be complete without you. I thought if we had another baby things might get to the point where we could bear your loss but once I knew you were alive,yes, I lied to Edward. I counted on him knowing me well enough to know nothing I had said to him was real. Rose told me he was sad and hurt but he never went into the dark place. Though maybe some of the reason was she never let him go there. He said she was amazing and she kept his head above the surface."

"We are all okay now, right?" she checked.

"We are okay. We are unbelievably lucky. I never imagined I would ever feel complete again. I had such emptiness and darkness inside and now look at me. All fixed. All happy."

"And soon Dad will have a new baby to love."

"He'll never love you any less. All babies bring their own love with them and we will always love you just as much as ever. Nothing will ever change that."

She rose up onto her toes and swayed back and forth, nervously.

"What's up?" I asked. She was blushing and half smiling and she finally looked straight at me and held my gaze.

"Jacob. Is it too weird that I'm starting to have feelings for him? Before I went away, he was just that nice guy Mom liked as a friend and Dad got annoyed with. Now, since I came home, he's different. We really seem to like the same things and he makes me feel safe."

"That's great," I replied, honestly. "Your Father may take time to warm to the idea but don't let that bother you. Jake is a fantastic guy. I have always liked him, just not in any romantic sense. He's always been my friend. He has great hair again," I sighed, then realized that may have been inappropriate, given that he was dating my daughter.

"He does, doesn't he. Don't laugh, but I can imagine the kids we would have together some day. Two little black haired babies. I don't really mind if they are boys or girls."

"Just take things slowly, Sweetheart, okay? Don't do anything to give your Father a heart attack."

"No chance of that," she replied sadly."I don't think Jake even sees me that way."

"He will," I promised her.

I was completely confident of that. The way Jake looked at me now spoke volumes. His eyes clouded a little and his forehead would wrinkle as he looked at me, then he would turn back to Angie and his face would clear before a soft smile took over.

He was wondering what he ever saw in me and why he wasted so many years waiting for something that was never going to happen. I'd moved into his "Friend Zone" at last.

On the other hand, he was enchanted with my daughter and the only thing holding him back was he fact he'd grown up with me, and he thought the age gap was too vast.

Or maybe he just thought everyone else on the planet would think that.

In time, he would realize age was simply a number and he had to forget about it and let his heart overtake his head.

I just hoped Edward would be distracted when that day came.

.


	8. Chapter 8

I Was Broken

Chapter 15

BPOV

The new houses lined the shelf halfway up the cliff face like a row of sentinels. Rose and Emmett's house was finished, as was ours, Esme's and the one intended for Angela once she wanted to move out away from us.

Alice and Jasper's was just having the final bits done and they would move in next week but for the rest of us, today was moving day.

"You sit and do not lift a finger," Edward warned me. "I know where every stick of furniture goes and if we get anything wrong, you can tell us tomorrow and I'll fix it. Alice, you are in charge of making sure my wife does not do anything reckless. Go find yourselves a sunny spot on the beach and relax."

We followed orders and Alice laid out blankets and towels and Bear sat guarding us as we watched the activity going on above us.

"So, do you and Jasper ever plan on having children?" I asked Alice as she lay beside me, belly down, in a position long denied to me. I imitated a beached whale and let my bump face the sun and as it was a nice day, I eased my top up and let the rays caress my swollen naked belly.

"I still don't know. I always assumed we would one day, until Angie got stolen and I realized while children do bring you the most joy, they also have the capacity to kill you. I'm not sure I want to risk my sanity by giving birth to someone who has the means to make me feel like you two did when you thought your child was dead.

I guess it sounds weak to you, but to hand that kind of power over to the Universe seems foolhardy. The Universe does not love us. We are wrecking the beautiful planet it entrusted in our care so why should it ensure our lives are all happiness and light?"

Emmett delivered Rose and the boys to join us then headed for the entrance to our tunnel up to the little community we were creating for ourselves.

"I'm going to be the first person to officially go up the Rabbit Hole," he announced before swiping his card and disappearing.

"God I swear there are seven babies in here," Rose sighed, settling down on her back, then wriggling around, using folded towels and beachbags as back support before finally lying on her side with her legs curled up.

"Remind me to never do this again. Even if it's another boy. I'll just grow his hair long and dress him in pink and name him one of those names that nobody can ever figure out from whether the kid is male or female."

"Shannon? Regan? Dana?" Alice suggested. "What name do you really have reserved?"

"I think we still want to go with Charlotte. Just sometimes it seems like we have had it chosen for so long, it's gotten a little stale. But then, everytime we decide on something else, we change our minds a few days later. Emmett liked 'Belinda' for an entire week then he changed it to 'Brianna' without noticing himself. Then when I pointed it out, he started calling her 'the B name' so I'm thinking we won't be going with anything that starts with B."

"What about you, Bella?" Alice asked, fussing around trying to amuse the boys while we two fat ladies vegged out.

She even let the boys burying her in the sand, so only her head and hands were exposed.

"Look, we made an Alice castle," Troy said, patting the sand down harder with his plastic spade.

"Wonderful. Maybe I should try doing that to you and your brother then I'd know where you were all the time," Rose replied lazily.

"I really don't know any more," I answered Alice's question. "Edward worries of course. He wants a name we will never get tired of calling out. He was convinced Kara was the one name he loved, then he started suggesting others. Like Jessica. He was keen on that until he remembered Jessica Stanley."

"Yeah, not a woman to name your kid after," Rose agreed. "Maybe you should name it after Esme? You both love her."

"Then we have the whole problem of naming it after one Gran and not the other. I mean, I'd never name a kid after Renee but that doesn't mean I'd hurt her by naming this baby after Esme and pretending it wouldn't crush my Mom if I did that."

"Well, you need to decide soon," Alice laughed.

"Not for another ten days. I have this baby elephant first, don't forget. I have two days to go, then I guess, once mine is hatched, you can have yours anytime but don't you dare jump the queue, Missy," Rose warned.

It hotted up and the boys started nagging for ice cream and cool drinks so we abandoned our nest and went in Rose's van into town to buy treats and search for sunscreen. It was rarely needed here so we searched two shops before scoring a tube.

We ended up in the ice cream parlour, and even after consuming various deserts, none of us felt inclined to move again.

Rose used their bathroom three times and Alice looked at me and raised an eyebrow.

"Normal? She has a bladder the same size as an ant does, now, right?"

"I'm fine and I drank two ice cream sodas, same as she did," I replied.

Rose returned but couldn't get settled. She ended up suggesting we window shop in the new mall Forks was anxiously waiting to open for business. The shops were all fitted out and Alice had moved her own shop over to it.

"Come see some of the clothes those rich Denali sisters have decided to sell. If I were taller and had a rack to rival theirs, I'd be keeping all their offerings myself. Those sisters are crazy. They won't get a tenth of what they paid and most of the outfits still have their original hangtags. Who buys clothes they never intend wearing?"

She unlocked her door and we trooped in. Alice showed us dress after dress, then coats, pants, jackets; all way more expensive and elegant than what we wore.

Rose had her put more than half the items aside for her, and amused us by holding up the slim cut frocks against her waist that was about three times the circumference of these dresses.

"I swear I will live on lettuce leaves until I get back to my real size," she swore. I liked a few of the outfits but with the difference in our heights, it would be easier to just go buy the same things in my own petite sizing, so I volunteered to take the boys off on a treasure hunt while the other women talked fashion.

I understood Rose's awakened passion. Now that she and Emmett owned their own house and had sold the one they had bought complete with a large mortgage, she was excited to finally have some cash to splash.

It had been tricky for Edward, trying to calculate how much he could bestow on our friends without making it look like charity handouts. Both couples had agreed to the houses because, let's face it, they could have their dreams houses long before they would have been able to normally, and who wants to slave and save their whole life then finally get the perfect house in time to retire? Better to have all the mod cons while the kids were small and you appreciated them more. Then he took Rose van shopping, saying it was a safety issue, not a luxury item.

Emmett quickly crumbled and let Edward buy him his dream jeep, seeing Rose now had a family vehicle. Their garage was built to house three cars and I knew he had a sexy hot red sports car waiting for delivery on Rose's next birthday.

He just wanted to repay Rose for all the help she had given him, and he knew she deserved every luxury for being there for him and keeping him sane and grounded when I'd left him.

Washing laundry and cooking meals for five people including a newborn would be a big enough task for Rosalie even with the latest white goods.

The forest surrounded the entire town so I sent the girls a text and started along one of the easy trails, letting the boys run ahead so long as they stayed within my sight. We'd end up on the bluff overlooking the houses and be able to see what they looked like from above, but this track was one made for beginners and it curled up the mountain at such a gentle angle you hardly noticed you were gaining height.

"Stay away from the edge," I warned as we arrived at the lookout. We sat cross legged and worked out which roof belonged to which house. The men were working hard, taking in furniture with the removalists, and at one point Jake looked up and saw us.

Of course, Edward then sent him and Angie to herd us down to the road. I sat and waited for them to arrive while the boys showed me the items I'd had them collect along the way. A pinecone each, a red leaf, a white stone, a feather; Troy's was bigger but Taylor's was whiter...

I had to come up with prizes from somewhere once they had found everything on our list.

Jake put Taylor onto his back and Angie held Troy's hand as we made our way down along the winding track that ended on the other side of our private road, away from the town.

Edward looked relieved to see me and made me settle down into the hammock he'd put up in our front/back yard, overlooking the beach.

"Oh, we left all our stuff down there," I said as I snuggled down , accepting the drink Jasper brought to me.

"So, where are the girls?" he asked. He wasn't worried, just curious. Edward was the worrier.

"Shopping. Alice is showing Rose the clothes the Denali's have put in her shop and I think she wants to buy everything for herself."

"Great. Those girls dress like models," Emmett replied, overhearing our conversation as he set out outdoor furniture around the pool we would all share. We each had a private spa pool outside our main bedroom doors but it seemed better to just build the one large pool and all use it.

Even if we each had one to ourselves, we'd all end up going from one to the other as a group, so no point.

Angela had requested a long thin lap pool as well, and we all knew that was for Jake.

Things were getting serious but to our collective surprise, Edward had done a complete turnabout and realized Jake truly was the best choice for our daughter and he was now their biggest fan. I think he saw it was inevitable that Angela would want to live as an adult, and by accepting Jacob as her partner, she would stay close and they'd live right next door, not something that would be guaranteed with any other partner she chose. Jake loved the area and had all his friends and family in the vicinity so he would never hanker after moving to Paris or anything like that.

No, they'd live here right in this little compound forever and we'd have grandbabies to play with our own babies.

I still wanted another baby after this one. Two little kiddies to play together and grow up with one another. That meant we had to settle on a small gap and not risk delaying the conception of the next one too long.

Esme was helping Emmett cook our very first dinner on the barbecue when Jazz left to go hurry the girls up, and Edward slipped onto my hammock and put his arms around my body, and kissed my throat.

"You look beautiful. So ripe and ready to pop. I predict you will beat Rose to the finish line."

I shuddered.

"Edward, that would be asking for trouble. She'd insist on a c section the second I went into labour, just to make sure her baby arrived first."

He spooned his long body around me and we lay there and watched the sun go down over the ocean. It was an amazing backdrop.

Angie had the boys sitting up at the large wooden table eating their food and we were just waiting for Jazz and the girls to come back so we could eat too.

Emmett's cell rang loudly and he grabbed it up.

"Emmett's Barbecue Grill. May I take your order?" he joked then he froze, and dropped the phone. "Rose has had the baby Alice had to deliver it in her shop! She said it just fell out. No time for the ambulance to arrive in time. Fuck, I have to go."

"I'll drive you, Carlisle announced, and they disappeared at a run.

"Okay, I could be wrong," Edward murmured, kissing my back.

"I wish he could have said whether it's a girl or a boy," Angie complained.

We knew within ten minutes, when Carlisle called Esme.

"It's a girl and they are both fine. We have another Alice. Rose insists on naming her daughter Alice Charlotte. Seven pounds."

We all cheered and decided to eat dinner.

"What's up, Bells? You look a little jealous, maybe? Envious that Rose managed to push this one out in a single push and you still have no idea how your delivery will go?" Jake asked. He was sitting beside Angie, who looked terrified. I guess she was of an age where childbirth had become a real possibility in her future, and it did look scary to the uninitiated. All that blood and screaming. She'd paled noticeably when she'd watched her favourite soap star 'deliver' her baby son last night . Of course the baby was not her husband's child but the result of a brief encounter on the beach with a mysterious stranger she had willingly opened her legs to then regretted when he disappeared into the mist.

"I'm just feeling lonely now as the only pregnant female here," I replied.

Angela tried to jump up from her seat but Jake held her hand tightly.

"We need to tell them," he said calmly, stroking her arm.

"Oh fuck," I whispered. I really had not seen this coming. I mean, I knew they were sleeping together because half the time it was in our cottage, in her bedroom. Edward had accepted it, and so that had been their green light as far as everyone was concerned.

I just assumed they were smarter than we had been and had been taking precautions. I was slightly concerned that Angie had allowed his to happen because she was scared to go off to college, as Edward wanted her to.

"Mom, we have to tell Dad and I just can't imagine when the right time would be," our daughter said nervously.

"I can. Tell him when he's in a flap because I'm in labour. It will happen within the next week so just avoid being around him a lot until then. Believe me, he'll be so preoccupied he will probably reply 'that's nice dear, now where is your Mother's suitcase."

It was kind of nice, really, but Edward would bring up the fact she was only nineteen.

Funny how it sounded so much younger when it was your daughter and not yourself, becoming a Mom at that age.

X~x~X

EPOV

Emmett was pouring champagne and handing it out in plastic glasses. Dad was pleased with Rose and with the baby. Alice was the local hero and had repeated every detail of the delivery a dozen times.

"She just grunted and bent over, doubled over, and water poured down her legs. Then she screamed at me to do something, so I grabbed a towel and started trying to mop it up and she said 'Not the floor. Catch the freaking baby, Alice,' and ripped her underwear off.

Next thing, this baby came out of nowhere and I caught it. Just like that. The baby was screaming and Rose was screaming. I think maybe I was screaming as well. I mean, when it comes to football I always drop the ball so I was glad I didn't get time to even think about it. I just grabbed on and held on tight."

"I'm so glad Bella had taken the boys away," Rose added, holding the pink blanketed bundle.

"That was something they did not need to witness. But at least it was fast. I swear, one single pain, like a freaking sledgehammer to my gut, then the water burst and I could feel her coming out."

I sidled up and peered at the little red face. Such a miracle but now I wanted our baby to be here even more.

"Do you want to hold your Goddaughter?" Rose asked me and I swear I blushed.

"Really? I get to be her Godfather? That's amazing. Thank you, Rose."

I lifted the soft little body up and held her face against my cheek. You never forget how incredibly soft the head of a newborn feels. Angie had felt like this.

Nineteen years ago.

She was still our baby but not for much longer.

"Hey, at least you avoided sibling rivalry. Troy and Taylor are already over the whole excitement and are fighting over who gets the bedroom furthest from the Nursery in the new house," Rose sighed.

"I thought the bedrooms had already been allocated," I replied.

"They had been but then Troy realized his is within the screaming zone and now he thinks he can pull the 'I'm the oldest therefore I get to chose' card."

"Then make them share Taylor's room and the first one to crack and want privacy has to move out into the other bedroom," I replied.

"Brilliant. I'll tell Emmett to put both beds in Taylor's room tonight. Good one, Edward."

I couldn't imagine what it would be like to have a sibling and have to share your parents attention. Neither could Bella. Then we had perpetuated the situation by only having the one child ourselves.

Until now.

Rose was right, though. Angie was too old and too distracted to even feel any angst about having to share us with the new baby. Jacob was her shiny new toy.

Something was up with that pair.

I'd agreed to Jake moving into the house we built for Angie, and had given her a creditcard of her own to go buy all the furniture for it. I rather liked what they had chosen.

The walls inside were all painted pale blue with white trims and the windows had white wooden shutters. The furniture was casual and beachy. Lots of white rattan and blue and white striped cushions. The picture windows overlooked the ocean of course so the sitting room was like an indoor beach, with soft sand coloured wooden floors.

It was young and fresh and they'd chosen well.

I even liked the beach themed stained glass light pendants.

I was guessing either they were about to announce their engagement or else Angie was not moving in with us, but moving in with Jacob instead.

Bella was clearly expecting me to rant and rave and forbid it, but what difference would that make? They were having sex.

I was pretty sure they were making love, not just scratching an itch. Jake was very caring and loving towards her and that was all one could ask, as a Father. So long as he loved her and wanted what was best for her, then everything would be fine.

We'd all be fine.

"My turn," Alice whined and I reluctantly handed her the baby; her Goddaughter. It was only fair that Rose chose Alice after what she had done but Bella had been happy with the outcome. I think maybe she felt now she could direct all her attention to our baby and not have to always remember that Alice Charlotte was important as well.

She seemed a little overwhelmed tonight and I guess none of us knew how she was feeling, really, because none of us had a baby inside us that would soon be forcing it's way out. The reality of what awaited her next must be quite daunting.

It had been nineteen years and last time she had been a mere kid herself, supremely confident that she knew it all and was ready to face up to the challenge.

The reality had shocked us both and when Angie came out with the cord tangled around her neck, we had both been freaked until it was pulled free and she slid out screaming.

Thank God nothing like that had occurred with Baby Alice Charlotte. Alice may have been able to catch that wet, slippery body but would she have been able to cope with a complication? Probably not.

"Maybe I will have one?" Alice said nervously. "I mean, if we started soon, there would be four little kids all close in age, all growing up together."

I guess maths has never been her strong point. There's no way Bella is carrying twins. We have seen every inch of our baby on 3D scan, save the genitalia because we don't want to know, but there was no question it was in there alone.

"Jasper would be a fantastic Dad," I replied, supporting the baby's head as she seemed unaware how vital that was.

She glared at me.

"I do know how to hold a baby. I held her first, remember? And I didn't let her break. Just because you are a doctor..."

"Crap," Bella exclaimed and I turned instantly. She'd had an upset stomach all night and had barely slept. I was loathe to blame Emmett's cooking, and anyway, she'd barely eaten any dinner. She'd said it was the excitement of Rose's delivery, but I had suspected maybe the domino effect was coming into play and I knew I was right as she glared at the puddle of liquid on the floor beneath her.

Her maternity jeans were drenched and she was pale and shaky.

I flew to her side and put an arm around her shoulders and took her hand in mine.

"Carlisle, we need you."

Dad was smiling at Esme, who looked ready to jump out of her own skin in excitement. It had been a long time between drinks, well, between grandbabies.

We walked Bella down the hallway towards the Delivery Suite and Rose yelled after us.

"Go on, Swan, steal my thunder. I should have known I wouldn't even get twenty four hours in the spotlight before you stepped in and hogged the limelight for yourself."

Oh fuck.

Bella was a Swan.

Jake and Angie were walking into the hallway from the front door and both stopped still.

"Go home and get your Mom's suitcase. It's all packed. It's in the front sitting room," I told them.

I'd left it there myself yesterday, having decided there was little point carting it up to the nursery when it would have to come down again any old day.

"Dad, I have to tell you something," Angie spluttered, blushing madly.

Bella moaned and grabbed her hand back and hugged her own torso.

"Later," I growled. I really was not concerned if she had a shiny new ring or matching key rings like Jake's, to her own house, I just needed to get Bella into a bed.

"Dad, it's important."

Bella gasped and I caught her as she collapsed.

"Carlisle, what the fuck is happening?" I yelled, carrying my wife bridal style into the room and letting the door slam behind us.

X~x~X

"It's okay. We are fine. We are going to be fine," I repeated over and over.

The emergency c section was going well and I held Bella's hand tightly as we glanced at one another.

"And I have the feet. It seems this baby did a flip and turned breech sometime last night. Unusual, but clearly possible," Dad stated. He was watching what he was doing, not looking at us as he spoke and a few seconds later our new daughter was hanging upside down in his hands, screaming loudly; comfortingly.

If she could screech like that, then she must be okay.

I stepped forward and waited as the midwife cleared her mouth and nose, then accepted my new baby girl into the pink blanket I'd had waiting.

I had never seen her genitals on the scans but she was so small and dainty I had been quite sure she was a girl.

Bella was laughing, relieved it was over. I was finally able to breathe again and I swear my heart started beating for the first time in the last hour or so.

Carlisle had examined Bella as she lay there unconscious and he had decided it would be best just to get the baby out and find out along the way whatever the problem was. As he lifted the infant clear of my wife's abdomen, the mystery had been solved. She had twisted the entire cord around her body several times and left no extra to allow her to be born the usual way. She'd tied herself up in knots.

A normal vaginal delivery had been impossible as Dad had suspected.

He'd unraveled her and pulled her free and saved her life.

God, had it been Bella and not Rosalie who'd gone into labour yesterday, in the shop...

It didn't bear thinking about.

Had I insisted on a home birth...

Bella had been right.

Wasn't she always?

"So, what are we naming her?" she asked, cradling the newborn in her arms while Dad sewed her back together again. Angela's name had been obvious. Bella's best friend in grade school had moved away so she'd sworn from that day forward that she would name her first child Angela after her.

I'd agreed because our daughter had come out looking so beautiful and perfect, she was clearly an angel.

"You can choose if you like. You did a great job last time," I replied. "I just want her to be named Cullen, not Swan. Why the fuck have we let ourselves be so busy we never got remarried before this happened? You'd think we had learned by now to make time for the important stuff."

"Edward, please don't make us get married today. I want to walk down the aisle to you again. I want to do it right. She can be Cullen. It's not like anyone here will object and they will all know she is my baby, no matter what our surnames are."

"I can wait," I agreed instantly. I should have married her as soon as I was no longer legally tied to Victoria. I guess we were a little shocky back then and had other things on our plates.

"We need to weigh her," the nurse reminded me and I took the baby back from Bella and carried her over myself.

"Six pounds exactly."

The same as Angie had been.

Bella was never going to produce nine pound offspring. Six pounds was pretty respectable.

"I think we should name her after Rose. She is the one who stood by us both and constantly reminded us about what we were risking losing by our stupidity. And she forgave us instantly and kept us steered in the right path. She wanted to come to the beach with me that day and make sure I didn't chicken out. She was there, nagging in my ear, inside my head. Urging me to go get my man back. Telling me Victoria was nothing but a slut and a homewrecker and I owed it to us to go try and steal you from her. I truly only meant to borrow you. She knew that would never be enough, didn't she? She knew once we made love there would be no turning back?"

"She's a smart cookie," I agreed. "So, Rose or the full Rosalie or what? A name with Rose tacked on the end?"

"Oh, I know! The name Emmett used in his novel. Roisin."

"Ro-sheen? " I replied.

"It's Irish and means Little Rose. We can call her Rosie for short. I love it. Roisin Cullen. You choose her middle name."

"Roisin Isabella Cullen. There is no other choice," I replied.

Rosie was tiny and short limbed and had her mother's little face and my copper in her brown hair. Her eyes were already predominantly green. She was very like her older sister had been at birth.

I did her first bath and dressed her in pink, then wrapped her up and kissed Bella, posing the baby in her arms for her first photos.

"I'm just going to take her to Rose's room for a minute, to introduce her to the family, okay?"

Bella was almost asleep and she merely nodded and closed her eyes. Dad was monitoring her closely and he gave me the thumbs up.

I stepped into the room and all eyes were instantly on the bundle in my arms.

"Pink! A girl!" Alice cheered.

"Everyone, I'd like you to meet our new little daughter, Rosie. Short for Roisin Isabella Cullen. Six pounds. In many ways it's thanks to Rosalie that Bella and I ever got our act together and reconciled so thank you, Rose. For never giving up. For keeping the dream alive when we didn't. This baby's name is a tribute to you and all you did."

Rose looked shocked and overwhelmed and I stepped forward and handed the baby to her, and she held the two little pink bundles together while Jasper took a thousand photos, then I reclaimed my baby.

Angie and Jake stepped into the room bearing trays of coffee cups, and Esme quickly took Angie's from her.

"Angie, this is your sister, Rosie."

She rushed toward me and I gingerly handed the little sister to the big one.

I knew Jasper was capturing the moment and I was glad, because Bella would be sorry to be missing all this when she woke up.

"She's beautiful," Angela stated, kissing her baby sister's forehead.

Jake was narrowing his eyes and Alice stepped forward, taking the baby before I could reach for her back.

"Go on, say it. Out loud," she ordered, looking at Angie. "I have the baby."

Angela took my hands in hers and faced me.

"Dad, I hope you are as happy about this as we are. The thing is..."

Jake stepped forward.

"Angie is expecting our baby. She's ten weeks pregnant."

I stood there, looking from one face to another.

I finally caught sight of Rose, and she raised her eyebrows and nodded, mouthing the word that was not quite appearing in my own brain.

"Congratulations," I said, following her lead.

I was stunned.

I don't know why.

Angela was Bella's daughter.

If this was happening, it was what she had chosen to happen.

"Hey," I said, finally coming back inside my body. "If you two are happy, then so am I. This is great."

"Now Jasper and I just need to begin Number Four," Alice said and I finally got it.

Then something hit me.

Renee would come to visit as soon as I called and told her about Rosie's arrival later today.

"Angela. There's just one thing. You are the one who will be telling Renee she is going to be a great grandmother, at her age."

The smile fell from her face instantly. She had not thought of that! Renee had given birth to Bella at eighteen. Bella had given birth to Angie at the same age. Now she was going to keep the tradition going, just one year late.

No, while Renee's friends were all becoming grandmother's, she was not going to appreciate the 'great' added onto her title.

And for once, she couldn't even blame me.

This was all down to Angie.

"Good luck," I said sincerely, taking my baby back and going back to my Bella.

**A/N Still reading? Bored with this now? I can end it next chapter if that's what you choose.**


	9. Chapter 9

**I'm sort of ending this now, but may come back to it when I have time, if you think it needs more. I just hate open stories and for the next few weeks, will barely have time to update WHTOFL, let alone this one as well. I'm putting up a story (It's Murder) I started a while ago on my other fanfic user, ElleD'Amore , if anyone is interested. It will be updated slowly because I want to get it right. I plan for it to have a sequel, maybe two, so it will take a LONG time to be completed but some random chapters have already been written.**

I Was Broken

Chapter 16 / Epilogue

"We are going to name it Charlie, regardless of the gender," Angie said, trying to pour oil on troubled waters. She was babbling now, desperate for her grandmother to say something, anything.

Renee had still not said a word. She lifted her teacup to her lips and some of the liquid missed her mouth and ran down her chin but she didn't notice.

Bella was watching on anxiously, and she handed the baby to me and went to sit beside her Mom and took her hand.

"It's going to be great, isn't it, Renee? Edward and I still plan to have another baby ourselves but if it doesn't happen, then it won't really matter,with Angie's baby living right next door. Our kids will grow up together and be best friends."

"Great grandchild," Renee stuttered, glaring at me.

I wanted to laugh. Renee had always blamed me for everything, no matter how much out of my control it was, but she really couldn't find any way to lay this one on my doorstep.

I jiggled Rosie up against my shoulder and kissed her little hand.

"I know. It's amazing," I said enthusiastically, pretending to misinterpret her shock and despair for joy. "And if it's a girl,who knows? Eighteen years down the track, you could get getting a great, great grandbaby. How many people get to experience that?"

Bella gave me the 'shut up or die' glare and rubbed Renee's hand. I wondered if she was bordering on going into actual, medical shock.

I handed our new daughter to Jacob, who had wisely stood back out of the way and let Angie handle this shit storm.

"We could name her Charlie Renee if it's a girl," Angela said desperately. "That sounds really pretty,doesn't it, Jake?"

"Yeah, sure," Jacob agreed. Bella was right about him, he'd never grown up like the rest of us. Never having had a girlfriend while he waited around hoping Bella would finally notice him, he'd been more or less frozen in time in his adolescence. Now he seemed almost our daughter's equal. I dare say her life experience's had meant she was hardly a typical teenager herself.

She was far more mature than most girls her age; it was almost as if she had been born middle-aged in many ways.

Most of her life she had only had the company of adults. None of our friends had kids until after she disappeared, so she'd always been a child in an adult world but it meant the age gap between herself and Jake was somehow negligible.

They did seem a perfect fit, even I had come around to accepting that. And more than that, I knew Jake could protect her, unlike boys her own chronological age. They'd still be wet behind the ears and into fast cars and drinking and partying all the time for years yet and Angie had no desire to go through that stage.

We had her back. I feared once she became enthralled with Jake, that she would pull away from us but the opposite had happened and she was becoming more of a friend to Bella than strictly just a daughter.

It was a good thing, and probably inevitable seeing they had missed the most vital mother/daughter interactive stage most teens go through, but it was also sad. There was nothing we could do about it but compared to what we had thought happened, it was pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

I sometimes had nightmares and woke up sweating, thinking this was the dream and reality was my old life back again to haunt me, and the only way to ground myself was to gaze at the face of the woman beside me. My Bella.

So many miracles.

Maybe the bad stuff had to happen to allow all this good stuff to follow,who knows?

"I think I need to lie down," Renee decided. Bella led the way to our guest room then came back alone and started making a fresh pot of tea.

"She isn't taking this well at all," she sighed. "She was so happy telling her friends she had a new granddaughter and saying the baby's big sister was so excited, more or less implying Angie was just a toddler, now she has to admit our eldest daughter is old enough to become a mother herself. It's not easy for her."

"Let me take that to her," Jake offered, taking the tea tray from Bella.

"This sweet little baby stinks," Angela complained, holding her sister at arm's length.

"Good chance for you to learn about the less pleasant parts of motherhood then," Bella replied. "Bring her to her nursery and I will instruct you on how to change a stinky diaper."

I wandered in to check on Jake and Renee, hoping she would be berating him just like she had done to me when Angie's conception had been announced, but instead, they were chatting like old friends, to my annoyance.

Jake hastily pocketed his flask so that was the explanation. He was plying Renee with alcohol to soften the blow.

She sipped on the teacup innocently.

"You could learn a few things from this lad, Edward. He makes a lovely cup of tea."

"Thanks Renee. Why don't you come and stay next door, it's quieter. No shrieking baby at three a.m. for one thing," the traitor suggested.

"I would like to have a proper look at your home," she agreed. "Edward will bring my suitcase. Oh Jake, I was thinking, Charlie is a good name but maybe you two could keep it for when you have a boy in the future. I am sure my granddaughter is carrying a girl this time."

"But then we'd have no idea what to name her," Jake smirked.

"Renee has always been a good enough name for me," she answered. "I think I'd become rather fond of the baby if she was my namesake. I could put her in my Will. Bella has everything she needs already."

Jake grinned over the top of Renee's head at me.

The man was a quick learner.

"I think you may have something there. Renee Angela Black. It sounds quite classy."

I would have my revenge.

Wait until the baby arrives and I start referring to her as 'Young Renee' leaving Bella's Mom to be 'Old Renee' by default. Then we'd see who was the favourite.

"You know Jake, I'm starting to think it's a good thing Angie is having this baby so young. It's much easier being a new Mom when you are young and fit and under thirty. It can be very taxing on older parents."

I love it. Now I'm the bad guy for forcing my wife to have another child at her age. And we are conveniently ignoring that Jacob is almost our age himself.

The girls were coming back downstairs and Angie looked a little green.

"Hey, your Gran wants to come and stay with us, okay? And we've had an idea about a great girl's name," Jacob stated to Angela.

She shuddered.

"You do stinky diaper changes and you can name it whatever you want," she replied.

"Deal," Jake quickly answered, looking victorious.

Bella was on our bed feeding Rosie when I got back from my duty as her Mother's butler, and I lay down beside her.

"I think Jacob has already worked out how to handle your Mother. Oh, you've been disinherited, by the way. Their baby is now her favourite, even over you."

"I imagine we can manage without the paltry inheritance," Bella replied, stroking my face as our baby lay between us. "So long as she is happy and doesn't spend the rest of her life complaining about her new status, I'm happy."

"She also suggested if they have two girls, they may like to think about naming the second one Rebecca after your grandmother."

"They'll earn that money," Bella said. "She will take over their lives and turn into a pest. They'll never get to decide another thing for themselves. She's a very hard woman to keep happy. Charlie would tell you that."

"You miss him, don't you?"

"I do. We could always beat them at their own game and name our son Charlie before they get the chance to. You want then next baby close in age,right?"

"Seems best, with us being so old and all," I laughed. "Charlie is a great name. He was so determined to find Angie for us, it's the least we can do for him. I hope wherever he is, he can see she did come home safely, and his efforts were not in vain after all."

"He came close to finding out the link between her disappearance and James,you know. If only he'd never seen that poor girl's body, he could have persisted and found her himself."

"I'm glad the Biers boy finally found his sister. It's strange seeing the new headstone in the cemetery,with her name on it now. I can't help feeling glad for us even while I'm sad for him."

"At least he knows, Edward. I'm glad he was able to have a place to go to to say Goodbye."

But was he better off, really?

I remember when we were still hoping Angie was alive, how Bella and I pulled together and supported one another,and how once that body was identified as hers, how we both fell into the black hole, all hope gone.

Maybe he wished he still didn't know,and could pretend his sister was off somewhere, having a wonderful life of her own.

I took the infant and rubbed her back then lay her on my chest to sleep and Bella curled up beside me.

I don't know where Charlie is, to be honest, because here on Earth life can be Hell, but also Heaven. We'd had our Hell and it felt like Heaven now.

Like all the stars were back, and the night sky was lit with happiness and hope again.

THE END

**Breaking Dawn 2 rocked. Excellent ending, loved it. So many gasps in the cinema at the twist! I laughed, my hubby said "WTF?"**

**Watch this, usual http & 3w's then examiner dot com /video/twilight-breaking-dads-trivia**


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